V 


BX  7233  .J4  F7 

Jefferson,  Charles  Edward, 

1860-1937. 
Forefathers'  day  sermons 


^i 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY 
SERMONS 


OCrSi  1929 


FOREFATHERS'  DA 
SERMONS 


BY 

Rev.  CHARLES  E.  JEFFERSON,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Author  of 

"  The  Character  of  Jesus"  "  Congregationalism^" 

"  Things  Fundamental"  etc. 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 
BOSTON  CHICAGO 


Copyright  1917 
By  frank  M.  SHELDON 


THE   PILGRIM   PRESS 
BOSTON 


CONTENTS 

I  The  Cloud  and  the  Sea      .... 

II  The  Pilgrims 

III  The  Puritans  of  New  England 

IV  The  Place  of  the  Puritan  in  History    . 
V  The  Puritan  Type 

VI  The  Puritan  and  the  Cavalier 

VII  The  Unpopularity  of  the  Puritan   . 

VIII  The  Strength  and  Weakness  of  Puritanism 

IX  The  Puritan  Theology        .... 

X  The  Puritan  Conscience     .... 

XI  The  Puritan  and  the  Home 

XII  The  Puritan  Sabbath  and  Ours 

XIII  Congregationalism 

XIV  The  Contribution  of  Congregationalism  to 

Education 

XV    Fundamental  Traits  of  Puritan  Characters 
AS  Illustrated  by  John  Milton  , 


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FOREFATHERS'  DAY 
SERMONS 


FOREFATHERS'   DAY 
SERMONS 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

"  /  would  not,  brethren,  have  you  ignorant,  how  that  our  fathers  were 
all  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed  through  the  sea."  —  1  Cor.  10  :  1. 

This  is  Forefathers'  Sunday^  —  a  day  on  which  every 
year  I  ask  you  to  look  back.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  look  back, 
not  always,  but  sometimes.  Many  of  us  do  not  look  back 
often  enough.  The  present  engrosses  us,  the  passing  mo- 
ment absorbs  us.  The  duties  and  engagements  and  plea- 
sures and  tasks  of  the  day  crowd  in  upon  us  and  blind  our 
eyes  to  everything  but  the  thing  that  now  is. 

We  look  back  a  little  —  as  far  as  yesterday.  We  read 
the  morning  paper.  That  is  a  record  of  yesterday.  But 
we  do  not  care  to  go  further  back.  We  are  not  interested 
in  day  before  yesterday,  or  the  day  before  that.  Nothing 
is  so  dreary  and  stale  as  a  daily  paper  two  days  old.  But 
we  ought  to  look  back  to  last  year,  and  to  the  last  century, 
and  still  further.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  take  long  views.  We 
need  a  long  view  backward  and  a  long  view  forward.  It 
is  the  long  view  which  gives  us  poise,  and  courage,  and 
patience,  and  hope.  It  is  the  long  view  which  enables  us 
to  quit  ourselves  like  men. 

We  do  well  when  we  look  back  to  Abraham  Lincoln  — 
fifty  years  back.    We  are  helped  by  looking  back  to  George 

1  Dec.  17,  1916. 

[I] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

Washington  —  more  than  a  hundred  years  back.  This 
year  we  were  edified  by  looking  back  to  William  Shake- 
speare —  three  hundred  years  back.  Next  year  we  shall  be 
strengthened  by  looking  back  to  Martin  Luther  —  four 
hundred  years  back.  It  is  an  inspiration  to  look  back  to 
the  days  of  Peter  and  John  and  Paul.  Sunday  is  a  me- 
morial day,  reminding  us  of  something  which  took  place 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago.  The  long  view  gives  us 
balance,  and  the  power  of  seeing  the  things  immediately 
around  us  in  their  correct  proportion  and  in  their  true 
relations. 

The  Hebrews  had  a  genius  for  looking  back,  and  also  a 
genius  for  looking  ahead.  The  two  capacities  went  to- 
gether, and  seemed  to  feed  each  other.  The  Hebrew  poets 
and  orators  and  statesmen  and  teachers  were  always 
talking  about  the  great  men  of  history.  They  never 
wearied  of  chanting  the  praises  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  and 
Jacob,  of  Moses  and  Joshua  and  Samuel,  of  Gideon  and 
Jephthah  and  Samson,  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  of  David 
and  Solomon.  They  were  always  bringing  to  bear  upon 
the  heart  the  lifting  force  of  bygone  days,  always  flashing 
on  the  mind  the  splendor  of  some  regal  soul  who  had  led 
the  way. 

Paul  was  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  when  he  wrote  to 
the  Corinthian  Christians:  "  I  would  not  have  you  igno- 
rant how  that  our  fathers  were  all  under  the  cloud  and  all 
passed  through  the  sea."  He  found  inspiration  in  men 
who  had  been  in  their  graves  fourteen  hundred  years.  Why 
does  he  say  "  our  fathers  "  ?  He  is  writing  to  a  Gentile 
church.  The  majority  of  the  members  were  Greeks.  There 
were  no  doubt  Jews  among  them,  but  they  were  probably 
in  a  minority.  He  says  a  little  later  in  this  letter:  "  Ye 
know  that  when  ye  were  Gentiles,  ye  were  led  away  unto 

[3] 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

those  dumb  idols,  howsoever  ye  might  be  led."  But 
nevertheless  Paul  speaks  of  "  our  fathers."  This  is  not 
surprising  to  any  one  acquainted  with  Paul's  mind.  He 
always  moved  in  the  realm  of  the  spirit,  and  it  was  spiritual 
realities  which  interested  him.  He  knew  that  there  is  a 
physical  lineage  and  also  a  spiritual  lineage,  a  physical 
ancestry  and  also  a  spiritual  ancestry.  He  was  surrounded 
by  religious  teachers  who  could  understand  nothing  but 
physical  descent.  They  were  always  shouting  in  his  ears: 
"  We  are  the  sons  of  Abraham  !  "  But  he  denied  it.  Out- 
wardly indeed  they  were  Jews,  but  inwardly  they  were 
not.  They  had  the  blood  of  Abraham  in  their  veins,  but 
not  the  spirit  of  Abraham  in  their  heart.  To  Paul,  a  man  is 
a  Hebrew,  not  when  he  has  the  blood  of  Abraham  in  his 
body,  but  when  he  has  the  faith  of  Abraham  in  his  soul. 
It  is  faith  which  saves,  and  not  blood.  In  his  second 
letter  to  the  Corinthians  Paul  makes  the  bold  assertion: 
"  Henceforth  we  know  no  man  after  the  flesh:  even  though 
we  have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  we  know  him 
so  no  more."  There  was  a  time  when  Paul  was  interested 
in  Jesus  as  a  descendant  of  David,  but  that  time  passed, 
and  he  became  interested  in  him  solely  as  the  Son  of  God. 
It  was  not  the  ancestry  of  Jesus,  but  the  mind  of  Jesus, 
which  became  the  object  of  supreme  importance.  These 
Greek  Christians  in  Corinth  had  been  baptized  into  the 
spirit  of  the  patriarchs  and  prophets.  They  had  come  to 
accept  the  Hebrew  attitude  to  God.  They  had  embraced 
the  ideas  and  ideals  of  the  Jew  of  Nazareth,  and  there- 
fore the  heroes  and  saints  of  the  Hebrew  people  became 
their  spiritual  ancestors.  It  was  proper  for  Paul  to  say 
"  our  fathers." 

So  today  let  me  speak  to  you  about  "  our  fathers." 
Some  of    you  were  brought  up  in  the  Methodist    Com- 

[3] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

munion,  and  some  in  the  Baptist,  and  some  in  the  Pres- 
byterian, and  some  in  the  Episcopal,  and  some  in  the 
Lutheran,  and  some  in  the  Dutch  Reformed,  and  some 
in  the  Roman  CathoHc,  and  others  in  some  still  different 
branch  of  the  great  church  of  God,  but  we  can  all  think 
about  "  our  fathers."  The  Pilgrims  are  our  ancestors  if 
we  have  accepted  their  ideals  and  been  baptized  into  their 
spirit.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  related  to  any  one  who 
came  over  in  the  Mayflower  to  be  a  son  of  the  Pilgrims. 
To  be  a  descendant  of  the  Puritans  it  is  not  necessary  to 
have  a  drop  of  Puritan  blood  in  one's  veins.  A  man  is 
a  child  of  the  Pilgrims  not  because  he  has  in  his  house  a 
piece  of  furniture  that  came  down  from  the  early  settlers 
of  New  England,  but  because  he  has  in  his  heart  some  of 
the  furniture  which  was  in  the  Pilgrim's  soul.  We  Ameri- 
cans are  all  in  a  sense  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims. 
They  have  influenced  us  all.  Our  life  is  different  because 
they  lived  and  labored.  We  can  no  more  escape  the  in- 
fluence of  their  ideals  than  we  can  escape  the  pressure  of 
the  physical  atmosphere.  Those  immigrants  of  1620  were 
our  fathers.  It  would  be  egregious  egotism  for  the  Con- 
gregationalists  to  claim  them  as  their  exclusive  property, 
and  it  would  be  sheer  bigotry  for  any  American  to  tiirn  his 
back  upon  the  Pilgrims,  saying:  "  I  take  no  interest  in 
them,  I  care  nothing  whatever  for  them,  because  I  am  a 
communicant  in  a  different  branch  of  the  church  of  Christ." 
As  many  as  have  been  baptized  into  the  spirit  of  the  Pil- 
grims, they  are  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims. 

I  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  says  Paul,  of  the  experi- 
ences of  our  fathers.  They  were  all  under  the  cloud  —  the 
mystical  cloud  —  the  cloud  that  symbolized  God's  protec- 
tion and  guidance.  They  all  passed  through  the  sea,  they 
made  their  way  through  inextricable  difficulties,  they  sur- 

[4] 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

mounted  insurmountable  obstacles.  They  had  extraor- 
dinary privileges.  They  were  all  baptized  unto  Moses. 
They  all  ate  of  the  same  spiritual  meat.  They  all  drank 
of  the  same  spiritual  drink.  But  notwithstanding  their 
blessings  and  mercies,  many  of  them  never  reached  the 
goal.  Most  of  them  fell  by  the  way.  Only  a  few  reached 
the  land  which  had  been  promised.  And  why?  Because 
they  slipped  down  into  the  idolatrous  feast  which  was 
spread  around  them.  They  slid  down  into  the  popular 
way  of  thinking  and  feeling.  They  sank  down  into  the 
current  practices  and  customs.  They  tumbled  plump 
down  into  the  old  ways  of  living,  and  hence  hardly  any 
of  them  reached  the  promised  goal.  Therefore,  Corin- 
thian Christians,  let  me  sound  a  note  of  warning.  If  any 
one  of  you  thinks  he  stands,  let  him  take  heed  lest  he  fall. 
For  the  idolatrous  feast  is  spread  at  your  door,  and  it  is 
easy  to  fall  out  of  the  life  to  which  you  are  called.  I  would 
not  have  you  ignorant  of  the  experiences  of  the  men  who 
have  gone  before  you.  Extraordinary  privileges  are  no 
guarantee  against  the  divine  judgments.  Wonderful 
mercies  do  not  safeguard  men  against  moral  catas trophies 
and  awful  penalties.  Men  can  be  under  the  cloud  and 
pass  through  the  sea,  and  at  the  same  time  come  to 
irretrievable  ruin.  Paul  gathered  together  the  failings 
of  his  fathers,  and  out  of  them  drew  a  warning  for  the 
admonition  of  his  fellow-Christians,  and  I  this  morning 
wish  to  roll  together  the  virtues  of  our  fathers,  and 
out  of  them  draw  a  lesson  for  our  encouragement  and 
strengthening. 

I  would  not  have  you  ignorant,  brethren ;  I  would  not 
have  you  forget.  I  would  not  have  the  fact  slip  into  the 
back  of  your  mind,  that  our  fathers  were  all  under  the 
cloud,  the  cloud  of   the  divine  guidance  and  protection, 

[5] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

and  also  the  cloud  of  popular  suspicion  and  disapproba- 
tion. They  all  passed  through  the  sea,  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
which  rolled  between  the  old  world  and  the  new,  and  also 
the  ocean  of  hardship  and  peril,  of  persecution  and  tribu- 
lation. It  is  easy  to  forget  that  the  Pilgrims  were  once 
despised  and  forsaken.  They  are  now  everywhere  eulo- 
gized and  exalted.  Even  men  who  do  not  praise  the  Puri- 
tans praise  the  Pilgrims,  and  men  who  speak  sarcastically 
of  the  Puritans  speak  eulogistically  of  the  Pilgrims.  The 
Pilgrims  were  one  species  of  Puritans,  a  sweet-spirited  and 
tolerant  and  hospitable  species.  The  Pilgrim  stands  on  a 
pedestal  in  circles  which  have  not  yet  become  willing  to 
put  a  wreath  on  the  Puritan's  brow.  The  Pilgrim  has  won 
golden  opinions  from  all  sorts  of  people.  Churches  are 
called  Pilgrim  Churches,  halls  are  called  Pilgrim  Halls, 
presses  are  called  Pilgrim  Presses.  Poems  are  written 
about  the  Pilgrims,  and  songs  are  sung  about  them,  and  a 
perpetual  stream  of  eloquence  eddies  around  their  name. 

But  the  Pilgrims  were  not  always  admired  and  lauded. 
They  were  once  the  most  unpopular  of  all  the  people  in 
England.  Men  looked  upon  them  much  as  we  now  look 
upon  anarchists.  They  were  alleged  to  be  the  destroyers  of 
public  order  and  security.  A  very  clever  and  Christian 
king  —  James  I  —  declared  that  he  would  compel  them  to 
conform,  or  else  he  would  harry  them  out  of  the  land. 
They  refused  to  conform,  and  so  they  were  harried  out  of 
the  land.  They  crossed  over  to  Holland.  They  were  all 
under  the  cloud  and  they  all  passed  through  the  sea.  In 
Holland  they  were  ignored.  Holland  paid  no  attention 
to  them.  Holland  met  them  with  no  bands  of  music. 
Holland  uttered  no  eulogy  over  their  virtues.  Holland 
bade  them  no  official  farewell.  Their  coming  and  going 
did  not  cause  a  ripple  on  the  placid  surface  of  Dutch  life. 

[61 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

They  were  in  Holland  eleven  years,  but  no  statues  were 
erected  in  their  honor,  and  no  tablets  were  put  up  to  mark 
the  spot  where  they  had  lived.  They  were  nobodies.  A 
company  of  a  hundred  Dukhobors  living  on  the  lower 
East  side  in  New  York  City  would  cause  about  as  much 
sensation  as  the  Pilgrims  caused  in  Leyden  during  their 
eleven  years  sojourn  there.  When  they  started  for  the 
New  World  there  were  no  tears  save  on  the  cheeks  of  a  few 
people  as  poor  and  socially  obscure  as  themselves. 

In  the  New  World  they  were  forsaken.  New  England 
was  in  1620  one  of  the  most  God-forsaken  corners  in  the 
world.  Various  companies  of  daring  pioneers  had  tried  to 
settle  there,  and  every  colony  had  ended  in  failure.  Half 
of  the  Pilgrims  died  the  first  winter.  The  next  year  thirty- 
five  new  immigrants  arrived,  all  desperately  poor.  There 
was  not  a  biscuit  left  on  the  wretched  little  craft  that 
brought  them.  They  had  no  cooking  utensils,  and  their 
clothing  and  bedding  were  scanty.  Two  years  later  sixty 
more  came  —  also  poor  and  needy.  During  the  first  three 
years  the  Plymouth  colonists  were  obliged  again  and  again 
to  face  starvation.  It  seemed  at  times  they  must  inevi- 
tably succumb.  In  summer  they  dug  shell-fish  out  of  the 
sand,  in  winter  they  lived  on  ground-nuts  and  wild  fowl. 
Nobody  sent  them  donations.  Europe  was  indifferent  to 
their  sufferings.  Very  few  Englishmen  could  be  induced 
to  join  them.  At  the  end  of  twenty-five  years  they  were 
still  only  a  handful  in  number.  When  in  1628  and  1630 
Englishmen  began  to  settle  at  Salem  and  around  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  these  newcomers  looked  upon  the  Plymouth 
colonists  askance.  They  had  no  desire  to  join  hands  with 
them.  It  was  not  till  a  number  of  them  fell  sick,  that 
they  were  willing  to  send  to  Plymouth  for  a  physician.  I 
would  not  have  you  forget,  brethren,  that  these  Pilgrims 

[7] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

were  all  under  the  cloud  of  the  world's  condemnation,  and 
that  all  passed  through  the  sea  of  misunderstanding  and 
neglect. 

Why  were  these  men  so  unpopular?  Because  they  were 
Non-conformists.  They  refused  to  conform  to  things  that 
had  been  established.  They  were  Separatists.  Rather 
than  violate  their  conscience,  they  separated  themselves 
from  the  crowd.  The  mediaeval  church  compelled  men 
to  conform.  It  told  them  how  they  must  act,  and  how  they 
must  pray,  and  how  they  must  think.  Many  chafed  under 
the  bondage,  and  resented  the  tyranny,  and  again  and 
again  there  were  insurrections  against  the  despotisms  of 
the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  which  had  gathered  all  power 
into  its  hands,  but  all  these  insurrections  were  crushed.  It 
was  not  till  1517  that  a  man  appeared  who  was  strong 
enough  to  lead  a  rebellion  which  was  successful.  Martin 
Luther  tore  Northern  Europe  away  from  the  Roman  See, 
and  a  little  later  Henry  VIII  wrested  England  also  from 
the  grip  of  Rome.  The  Pope  was  succeeded  by  the  English 
King,  and  the  Roman  Curia  was  superseded  by  the  English 
Parliament,  and  the  civil  hierarchy  assumed  the  right  to 
say  who  the  officers  of  the  church  should  be,  and  how  the 
followers  of  Christ  should  worship  God. 

Multitudes  resented  this  infringement  of  their  rights. 
Thousands  resisted  the  usurpers  in  their  minds,  hundreds 
with  their  tongues,  only  a  few  in  act.  A  handful  of  radicals 
said:  "  We  will  not  submit  to  this  !  We  will  go  out !  We 
will  go  out  at  once  !  We  will  go  out  alone  !  We  will  go  out 
at  any  cost!  It  matters  not  what  others  think,  or  say,  or 
do,  our  duty  is  clear.  It  matters  not  what  King  or  Prince 
may  say,  or  what  Bishop  or  Archbishop  may  threaten,  our 
allegiance  is  to  the  King  of  Kings,  and  him  only  will  we 
serve."     These  men  became  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.     They 

[8] 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

got  their  early  inspiration  from  a  man  who  wrote  a  little 
book  entitled  '*  Reformation  Without  Tarrying  for  Any." 
The  keynote  of  the  Pilgrim  movement  is  sounded  in  that 
title.  The  Pilgrims  refused  to  conform  to  an  established 
thing  which  they  believed  was  wrong.  They  went  out 
alone.  They  went  out  at  the  risk  of  losing  their  fortunes 
and  their  lives.  That  is  the  Pilgrim  spirit.  When  men 
ask  you  what  is  the  distinctive  trait  of  the  Pilgrim  spirit, 
this  is  the  answer:  "The  distinctive  trait  of  the  Pilgrim 
spirit  is  willingness  to  depart  alone  from  the  established 
order,  even  at  the  cost  of  one's  fortune  and  one's  life." 
Many  persons  are  willing  to  cast  off  an  established  custom 
when  the  time  is  ripe  for  such  action,  or  in  other  words, 
when  it  is  safe,  when  the  public  mind  has  been  prepared, 
when  the  environment  offers  promise  of  success,  but  only 
a  few  are  ready  to  go  on  ahead  of  their  time,  to  march 
forward  without  waiting  for  any.  It  is  the  refusal  to  wait  for 
the  crowd  that  constitutes  the  essence  of  the  Pilgrim  spirit. 
There  are  many  who  are  ready  to  depart  from  the  estab- 
lished order  when  such  departure  involves  no  risk.  There 
are  times  when  it  is  easy  enough  to  refuse  to  conform, 
and  in  such  times  non-conformists  are  many.  But  there 
are  only  a  few  who  are  willing  to  go  out  alone  in  the  sup- 
port of  any  great  cause,  if  the  going  out  involves  the  risk 
of  losing  one's  friends  and  one's  fortune  and  one's  life.  It 
is  this  willingness  to  stake  everything  on  one's  course  of 
action  which  constitutes  the  crowning  glory  of  the  Pilgrim 
spirit.  The  Pilgrim  went  out  alone,  carrying  his  life  in  his 
hand.    That  is  why  the  world  today  bows  before  him. 

Now  if  any  man  thinks  he  stands  in  the  line  of 
the  Pilgrim  succession,  let  him  take  heed  lest  he  fall.  The 
Pilgrims  of  the  17th  century  were  few  in  number,  and  there 
are  only  a  handful  in  any  age  who  are  ready  to  do  what 

[9] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

the  Pilgrims  did.  The  idolatrous  feast  is  always  spread, 
and  men  and  women  sit  down  at  the  table.  It  is  easy 
to  think  the  thing  which  others  are  thinking.  It  is  natural 
to  feel  the  thing  that  the  crowd  is  feeling.  It  is  comfort- 
able to  do  the  thing  which  the  multitude  is  doing.  The 
reason  the  world  gets  on  so  slowly  is  because  the  number 
of  Pilgrims  is  small.  Mankind  is  determined  to  do  the 
thing  that  is  customary,  to  bow  down  before  the  thing 
which  is  established,  and  that  is  why  the  world  creeps  on 
w^ith  many  a  delay  toward  the  promised  land. 

If  you  were  one  of  six  persons  who  happened  to  come 
together  on  Sunday  morning  before  church  time,  and  all 
the  other  five  said  they  were  not  going  to  church,  what 
would  you  do?  If  you  were  a  Pilgrim,  you  would  go. 
A  Pilgrim  goes  out  alone.  It  is  hard  to  retain  the  Pilgrim 
spirit  in  a  great  city.  If  you  were  one  of  a  dozen  persons 
discussing  the  subject  of  prayer,  and  one  after  another 
should  say  disparaging  things  about  it,  one  advancing  a 
scientific  argument  against  it,  another  quoting  a  great 
name  against  it,  still  another  scoffing  at  it  as  an  effete 
superstition,  what  would  you  do?  If  you  were  a  Pilgrim, 
you  would  stand  up  and  confess  yourself  a  believer  in 
prayer.  You  would  say  that  you  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
praying  from  childhood,  and  that  you  hoped  that  by  God's 
grace  you  might  be  strong  enough  to  continue  praying  to 
the  end.  It  is  difficult  to  be  a  Pilgrim  among  unbelievers. 
If  you  chanced  to  find  yourself  in  a  company  of  acquain- 
tances or  friends,  and  all  of  them  proceeded  one  after  the 
other  to  kick  the  church,  each  one  vying  with  the  others 
to  see  who  could  kick  it  hardest,  what  would  you  do? 
If  you  were  a  Pilgrim,  you  would  defend  the  church,  and 
tell  the  company  that  in  your  judgment  the  church  is  an 
institution   indispensable   to   the  well-being  of    mankind, 

[lO] 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

and  that  without  the  church,  civilization  would  go  to 
pieces  and  society  would  rot.  It  is  not  easy  in  the  midst  of 
a  scoffing  generation  to  be  a  Pilgrim.  If  you  were  seated 
at  a  great  dinner  and  everybody  at  the  table  was  drinking 
champagne,  and  if  you  were  convinced  that  at  the  present 
time  it  is  not  wise  for  men  who  wish  to  set  the  highest 
example  to  young  men  and  young  women  to  drink  alco- 
holic drinks,  what  would  you  do?  If  you  were  a  Pilgrim, 
you  would  refuse  to  taste  the  champagne.  A  Pilgrim  is 
not  afraid  to  be  alone.  In  society,  either  high  or  low,  it 
is  not  easy  to  be  a  Pilgrim.  To  be  a  Pilgim  you  must  be 
willing  to  be  buffeted,  and  criticised  and  scorned.  You 
must  be  ready  to  stand  alone.  You  must  not  hesitate  to 
pay  the  price. 

Already  the  Tercentenary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims is  in  sight,  and  the  question  is  up  for  discussion: 
How  can  we  most  fittingly  celebrate  the  three  hundredth 
anniversary  of  that  great  event?  Various  suggestions  have 
been  offered.  Of  course,  there  will  be  sermons  preached, 
and  orations  delivered,  and  poems  recited,  and  songs 
sung.  The  Pilgrims  will  be  eulogized,  and  glorified,  and 
vociferously  applauded.  This  is  well.  It  is  proper  that 
these  things  should  be  done.  But  these  things  are  not 
an  adequate  celebration  of  an  epoch-making  event.  It 
is  easy  to  shout  the  praises  of  heroes  who  are  dead.  It  is 
pleasant  to  cast  flowers  on  the  graves  of  men  whom  we 
could  not  live  with  were  they  alive.  It  is  easy  to  extol 
courage  and  sacrifice  when  doing  it  costs  us  nothing. 
Building  the  sepulchers  of  the  prophets  and  garnishing 
the  tombs  of  the  righteous  has  been  a  favorite  pastime  of 
all  generations.  There  was  nothing  which  so  disgusted 
the  heart  of  Jesus  as  the  prattling  of  his  contemporaries 
about  the  virtues  of  the  prophets,  when  the  spirit  which 

[II] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

had  made  the  prophets  great  had  entirely  departed  from 
the  hearts  of  those  who  were  loudest  in  their  praises.  We 
want  the  eulogies,  but  let  us  remember  that  these  are  not 
enough. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  a  concerted  effort  be  made 
to  increase  the  membership  of  our  denomination.  Nearing 
the  end  of  three  hundred  years  we  discover  that  in  num- 
bers we  have  lagged  behind,  and  that  notwithstanding  an 
early  start  and  our  multitudinous  privileges,  we  have  not 
made  the  most  of  our  opportunity.  We  are  now  urged  to 
endeavor  to  add  a  half  million  communicants  to  our  mem- 
bership within  the  next  four  years.  This  also  is  good, 
but  it  is  not  sufficient.  Increasing  the  size  of  a  denomina- 
tion is  not  necessarily  a  blessing  to  the  world.  Everything 
depends  on  what  the  denomination  stands  for  and  what  it 
is  trying  to  do.  There  are  institutions  whose  increase  of 
bulk  would  mean  an  impoverishment  of  mankind.  The 
Christian  church  increased  its  size  enormously  in  the  reign 
of  Constantine,  and  the  Christian  cause  was  poorer  ever 
afterward.  What  this  world  most  needs  is  not  larger  num- 
bers, but  a  finer  spirit.  The  effort  to  increase  the  member- 
ship of  our  churches  is  not  to  be  discouraged,  but  that  is 
not  the  first  thing  which  we  have  to  consider.  We  cannot 
celebrate  properly  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  simply  by 
adding  members  to  our  churches.    That  is  too  easy. 

Some  one  has  suggested  that  an  immense  sum  of  money 
be  collected,  several  millions  of  dollars,  and  that  great 
endowments  be  established  for  the  support  of  our  work. 
This  also  is  excellent,  but  it  is  not  all.  The  raising  of 
money  has  become  the  customary  American  way  of  cele- 
brating. All  the  denominations  have  adopted  it.  Nothing 
could  be  more  popular  or  more  easy.  Somebody  offers 
the  suggestion,  committees  are  at  once  appointed,  a  few 

[12] 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

rich  men  give  large  sums,  and  the  thing  is  done.  The 
celebration  is  a  success. 

We  are  not  to  toss  aside  the  suggested  effort  to  raise 
several  millions  of  dollars,  but  raising  money  is  not  an 
adequate  celebration  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  We 
must  do  something  more  difficult  than  that.  We  must  face 
a  problem  more  fundamental  than  the  problem  of  money- 
raising.  We  must  not  overlook  the  tremendous  fact  that 
our  fathers  were  all  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed  through 
the  sea,  and  that  if  we  desire  to  praise  them  we  must  imi- 
tate them,  if  we  are  going  to  honor  them  we  must  be  like 
them,  if  we  are  to  celebrate  them  in  any  real  and  worthy 
manner,  then  we  must  become  Pilgrims  ourselves.  We 
must  refuse  to  conform  to  the  established  things  that  are 
wrong.  We  must  dare  to  stand  alone.  We  must  go  out 
from  the  world  at  the  risk  of  losing  our  reputation  and  the 
world's  acclamations.  We  must  commit  ourselves  to  some 
unpopular  reform.  We  must  dedicate  ourselves  to  some  im- 
possible task.  We  must  strike  with  all  our  might  some 
colossal  wrong.  We  must  strive  to  break  the  bonds  of 
some  ancient  tyranny.  We  are  living  in  momentous  times. 
The  idolatrous  feast  was  never  so  magnificent  and  inviting 
as  today.  The  world  is  full  of  false  philosophies,  low  ideals, 
materialistic  ambitions,  and  if  we  wish  to  celebrate  the 
achievements  of  the  Pilgrims,  we  must  come  boldly  out 
from  the  tame  and  timorous  crowd,  and  audaciously  stand 
up  for  the  principles  for  which  Christ  died  on  the  cross  ! 

All  this  was  finely  said  over  seventy  years  ago  by  James 
Russell  Lowell,  in  his  little  poem,  "  The  Present  Crisis." 
He  wrote  it  at  the  age  of  twenty-six.  It  has  in  it  the  glow 
and  virility  of  youth.  Parents  ought  to  teach  it  to  their 
children.  Such  a  poem  dropped  into  the  bottom  of  the 
heart  acts  like  radium,  it  radiates  energy  into  the  will 

[13] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

through  all  the  years.  The  poet  begins,  as  you  know,  by 
glancing  over  the  past.  He  is  appalled  by  the  apparent 
carelessness  of  the  Abnighty  in  avenging  awful  wrongs: 

"  History's  pages  but  record 
One  death-grapple  in  the  darkness  'twixt  old  systems  and  the  Word  "  ; 

But  this  does  not  daunt  him,  for  he  hastens  on  to  declare 
in  lines  which  have  been  more  frequently  quoted,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  lines  written  by  an  American : 

"  Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne,  — 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and,  behind  the  dim  unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  his  own." 

He  then  falls  to  meditating  on  the  deeds  of  the  great  men 
who  have  made  the  world  what  it  is.  He  describes  the 
spirit  which  made  them  great: 

"  Count  me  o'er  earth's  chosen  heroes,  they  were  souls  that  stood  alone. 
While  the  men  they  agonized  for  hurled  the  contumelious  stone. 
Stood  serene,  and  down  the  future  saw  the  golden  beam  incline 
To  the  side  of  perfect  justice,  mastered  by  their  faith  divine. 
By  one  man's  plain  truth  to  manhood  and  to  God's  supreme  design." 

He  notes  how  these  heroes  have  been  obliged  to  toil  up 
calvaries  at  the  top  of  which  they  were  crucified,  but  their 
tragic  end  does  not  block  the  way  of  Progress,  or  overturn 
the  plans  of  God : 

"  For  Humanity  sweeps  onward:  where  to-day  the  martyr  stands, 
On  the  morrow  crouches  Judas  with  the  silver  in  his  hands; 
Far  in  front  the  cross  stands  ready  and  the  crackling  fagots  burn, 
While  the  hooting  mob  of  yesterday  in  silent  awe  return 
To  glean  up  the  scattered  ashes  into  History's  golden  urn." 

And  from  this  he  draws  a  lesson  and  a  warning.  The 
Pilgrims  have  set  us  an  example,  and  we  are  reluctant  to 
follow  it: 

ri4] 


THE  CLOUD  AND  THE  SEA 

*'  *Tis  as  easy  to  be  heroes  as  to  sit  the  idle  slaves 
Of  a  legendary  virtue  carved  upon  our  fathers'  graves, 
Worshippers  of  light  ancestral  make  the  present  light  a  crime ;  — 
Was  the  Mayflower  launched    by  cowards,  steered  by  men  behind 

their  time? 
Turn  those  tracks  toward  Past  or  Future  that  make  Plymouth  Rock 

sublime? 
They  were  men  of  present  valor,  stalwart  old  iconoclasts. 
Unconvinced  by  axe  or  gibbet  that  all  virtue  was  the  Past's; 
But  we  make  their  truth  our  falsehood,  thinking  that  hath  made  us 

free. 
Hoarding  it  in  mouldy  parchments,  while  our  tender  spirits  flee 
The  rude  grasp  of  that  great  Impulse  which  drove  them  across  the 

sea." 

The  sum  of  the  whole  matter  is  this.  It  is  expressed  in 
lines  which  should  be  written  on  every  American  mind 
and  heart: 

"  New  occasions  teach  new  duties;  Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth; 
They  must  upward  still,  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of 

Truth ; 
Lo,  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires!  we  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 
Launch  bur  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  winter 

sea. 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key." 

Lowell  has  told  us  how  to  celebrate  the  three  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Whence  did  the  Pilgrims  get  their  spirit?  From  the 
Bible.  They  loved  to  read  exhortations  like  this:  "  Be 
not  conformed  to  this  world:  but  be  ye  transformed  by 
the  renewing  of  your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that 
good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect  will  of  God."  And 
also  this:  "  Come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye  sepa- 
rate, saith  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing;  and 
I  will  receive  you,  and  will  be  a  Father  unto  you,  and  ye 
shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters,  saith  the  Lord  Almighty." 

Jesus  himself  was  a  Pilgrim,  an  example  and  a  guide  for 
all  Pilgrims  to  the  end  of  time.     He  refused  to  conform  to 

[IS] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

a  wrong  that  had  been  established.  He  dared  to  defy  cus- 
tom and  tradition.  He  was  wilHng  to  walk  alone.  He  un- 
derstood the  risk  he  took.  He  knew  that  non-conformity 
would  bring  him  to  the  cross.  But  he  did  not  falter.  The 
learned  men  of  his  country  forsook  him.  The  influential 
men  turned  against  him.  The  so-called  good  people 
arrayed  themselves  against  him.  At  last  the  crowd  be- 
came venomously  hostile  to  him,  and  he  was  left  alone 
with  twelve  intimate  friends.  The  State  was  against 
him,  the  Church  was  against  him,  his  own  family  was 
against  him,  the  whole  world  was  against  him.  Only 
twelve  humble  peasants  were  with  him.  He  met  them 
in  an  upper  room.  One  of  these  twelve  deserted  him.  He 
knew  what  the  others  would  do.  He  told  them  plainly: 
"  You  shall  be  scattered,  every  man  to  his  own,  and  shall 
leave  me  alone."  But  he  was  not  dismayed.  He  did  not 
quail.  He  was  ready  to  pay  the  full  price.  This  was  his 
consolation:  "  I  am  not  alone,  because  the  Father  is  with 
me."  The  Pilgrims  were  what  they  were  because  they 
had  been  with  Jesus.  He,  before  them,  was  under  the 
cloud,  he  passed  through  the  sea. 


[i6] 


II 

THE   PILGRIMS! 

*'  Being  destitute,  afflicted,  tormented."  —  Heb.  11:37. 

A  distinctive  feature  of  the  system  of  Hebrew  education 
was  the  tremendous  emphasis  which  was  laid  upon  the 
illustrious  deeds  of  the  immortal  dead.  The  religious 
teachers  of  Israel  made  the  past  live  in  the  mind  of  Hebrew 
youth.  It  was  made  to  live  in  great  personalities.  The 
Hebrew  mind  had  no  liking  for  abstractions.  It  was  not 
interested  as  we  are  in  the  analysis  of  virtues.  It  did  not 
interest  itself  in  pale  ideas.  It  was  fond  of  the  concrete, 
the  personal.  It  took  little  interest  in  the  graces  and 
virtues  of  character  unless  they  were  embodied  in  a  living 
man.  And  so,  Hebrew  teachers  were  always  dealing  with 
the  past.  They  were  constantly  picking  up  some  chapter 
of  history  and  asking  the  people  to  read  it.  In  order  to 
show  what  God  is  like  and  what  God  wants,  they  were 
always  studying  the  experiences  of  their  ancestors.  It 
was  only  in  experience  that  they  found  inspiration  to  make 
the  future  better  than  the  past.  Parents  were  always 
talking  to  their  children  about  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  or  if  not  about  these,  then  about  Moses  and  Joshua. 
They  related  again  and  again  the  wonderful  experiences 
that  attended  the  exodus  from  Egypt,  and  also  the  wonder- 
ful experiences  attending  the  conquest  of  Canaan.  They 
never  grew  weary  of  telling  about  Gideon  and  Samson  and 
Jephthah  and  Barak.  They  spoke  often  of  David  and 
Solomon,  Elijah  and  Elisha,  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.     It 

1  Dec.  19,  1915. 

[17] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

was  by  concentrating  the  mind  upon  the  character  and 
achievements  of  the  mighty  dead  that  the  Hebrew  mind 
was  trained  and  the  Hebrew  spirit  was  strengthened.  Thus 
in  the  course  of  the  centuries  there  was  built  up  what  is 
known  as  the  Hebraic  mind,  the  Hebraic  disposition,  the 
Hebraic  attitude  to  life.  And  out  of  this  Hebrew  stock 
there  came  in  the  fulness  of  time  one  who  was  the  fairest 
of  ten  thousand  and  who  was  altogether  lovely;  the  Son 
of  Man,  and  as  we  Christians  think,  the  Son  of  God. 

We  Americans  might  adopt  with  profit  the  method  of 
the  ancient  Hebrew  teachers.  To  be  sure,  we  follow  their 
method  more  or  less  already.  We  use  it  probably  more 
in  the  public  schools  than  we  do  as  yet  in  our  churches.  In 
our  churches  we  have  gone  only  a  little  way.  No  preacher 
would  hesitate  to  preach  a  sermon  on  George  Washington 
or  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  most  preachers  do  not  go  be- 
yond that.  The  average  preacher  would  not  think  of 
preaching  about  any  great  American  poet  or  philosopher 
or  scholar,  or  any  distinguished  American  lawyer  or  doctor 
or  merchant.  Yet  a  great  company  of  noble  and  great- 
hearted men  have  contributed  to  the  building  of  this  re- 
public, and  it  is  only  because  of  their  heroic  service  and 
sacrifice  that  our  nation  is  today  what  it  is.  We  do  not 
think  of  these  men  as  often  as  we  should.  We  should  be 
braver  and  stronger  if  we  made  a  larger  use  of  the  past. 
It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  God  is  a  God  of  the  Jews  only; 
he  is  a  God  of  Americans,  too.  It  is  unthinkable  that  God 
inspired  men  in  olden  times  and  that  his  inspiration  ceased 
something  like  1900  years  ago.  It  is  a  fundamental  teach- 
ing of  the  Christian  religion  that  God's  inspiration  is  con- 
tinuous, that  he  is  always  guiding  and  teaching  men,  and 
we  are  to  believe  that  all  the  virtues  and  graces  which  are 
exhibited  in  our  American  people  are  the  outflowering  of 

[i8] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

his  Eternal  Spirit.  We  impoverish  our  life,  therefore,  if 
we  do  not  hold  communion  with  our  mighty  dead.  We 
should  be  better  Americans  and  better  Christians  if  we  went 
back  more  frequently  to  ponder  the  characters  and  the 
deeds  of  our  ancestors.  Let  us  think  this  morning  about 
the  Pilgrims.  In  the  roll  of  American  immortals  they  must 
hold  forever  a  conspicuous  place. 

When  we  think  of  the  Pilgrims  we  think  of  them  as  a 
group,  a  body,  a  family.  There  is  no  one  Pilgrim  who 
stands  out  head  and  shoulders  above  all  the  others.  There 
is  no  one  of  them  who  shines  with  a  peculiar  glory  as  a 
central  sun  round  which  the  others  revolve.  No  one  ever 
got  the  start  of  the  rest  so  as  to  bear  the  palm  alone.  They 
constitute  a  sort  of  constellation  which  shines  in  our  Ameri- 
can sky.  We  are  not  so  much  interested  in  the  particular 
stars  as  in  the  entire  constellation.  Indeed  they  hardly 
form  a  constellation,  but  rather  a  piece  of  the  milky  way. 
The  stars  have  lost  their  individual  splendor,  and  their 
light  ha,s  melted  to  form  a  patch  of  fleecy  whiteness.  Many 
of  us  would  find  it  difficult  to  give  the  names  of  a  score 
of  the  Pilgrims,  others  of  us  could  not  name  a  dozen. 
Some  of  us  are  more  or  less  familiar  with  William  Brewster 
and  William  Bradford,  John  Carver,  John  Alden,  Samuel 
Fuller,  Isaac  Allerton  and  Edward  Winslow.  Probably 
most  of  us  know  Miles  Standish  better  than  any  of  the 
rest  because  the  poet  Longfellow  has  thrown  upon  Stan- 
dish's  face  the  light  of  his  poetic  genius.  But  I  am  not  to 
speak  this  morning  about  any  one  or  two  or  three  of  these 
men  —  my  subject  is  the  Pilgrims,  the  whole  body  of  the 
people  who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  I  want  simply 
to  tell  the  story  of  their  coming  to  America.  There  are 
different  kinds  of  sermons.  There  are  explanatory  ser- 
mons in  which  the  purpose  of  the  preacher  is  unfolding 

[19] 


FOREFATHERS^  DAY  SERMONS 

some  principle  or  idea,  explaining  its  contents,  and  applying 
it  to  the  affairs  of  every-day  life.  There  are  hortatory 
sermons  in  which  the  preacher  exhorts  his  congregation  to 
believe  some  truth,  or  to  perform  some  duty.  There  are 
story  sermons  in  which  nothing  is  explained,  and  where 
there  is  no  exhortation,  the  simple  narrative  being  allowed 
to  make  what  impression  it  will.  For  instance,  the  story  of 
Joseph  and  his  brethren  is  a  sermon;  it  contains  no  expla- 
nation or  exhortation,  but  from  first  to  last  it  makes  a 
mighty  appeal  to  the  heart.  The  story  of  Gideon  and  his 
exploits  lays  a  strong  hand  on  the  soul.  Various  mission- 
aries have  told  us  that  they  have  never  been  able  to  preach 
a  sermon  so  moving  as  the  simple  story  of  Jesus'  death 
on  the  cross.  By  the  repetition  of  the  facts  as  they  are 
related  by  the  evangelists,  the  missionary  is  able  to  get 
deeper  into  the  human  heart  than  by  any  other  sermon 
which  he  is  able  to  create.  Let  me  tell  you  this  morning, 
in  a  simple,  unadorned  manner,  the  story  of  the  Pilgrims. 

In  the  northern  part  of  England,  about  140  miles  from 
London,  in  the  county  of  Nottinghamshire,  there  is  a 
little  village  with  the  unattractive  name  of  Scrooby.  It 
is  a  very  old  town,  with  a  history  running  back  to  the 
twelfth  century.  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  there  lived  in  this  village  a  man  by  the  name  of 
William  Brewster.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Cambridge 
University.  After  graduating  he  became  the  private 
secretary  to  a  distinguished  English  diplomat.  Later  on 
he  succeeded  his  father  as  the  postmaster  in  Scrooby, 
where  he  lived  in  a  large  manor  house  belonging  to  the 
Bishop  of  York.  In  the  hall  of  this  manor  house  a  com- 
pany of  English  men  and  women  were  in  the  habit  of 
meeting  every  Sunday  to  worship  God  in  a  way  that  was 
different  from  the  worship  prescribed  by  the  State  church, 

[20] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

Some  of  them  came  from  Scrooby  and  others  from  small 
hamlets  round  about.  Among  them  there  was  a  boy 
seventeen  years  of  age,  William  Bradford,  who  came  from 
Austerfield,  three  miles  away.  The  one  thing  peculiar 
about  these  people  who  met  in  William  Brewster's  house 
was  that  they  believed  it  was  their  right,  as  believers  in 
Jesus  Christ,  to  worship  God  in  the  way  which  they  be- 
lieved God  had  ordained.  This  belief,  however,  was  con- 
trary to  the  general  belief  of  that  time.  Englishmen,  on 
the  whole,  believed  in  uniformity.  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
always  insisted  upon  it,  and  now  her  successor,  James  I, 
insisted  upon  it  still  more  strongly.  James  I  was  the  son 
of  Lord  Darnley  and  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  Somebody 
once  said  that  he  was  the  wisest  fool  in  Europe.  He  was 
not  without  a  certain  kind  of  ability,  but  he  was  very 
narrow  and  very  stubborn,  always  insisting  stoutly  on  the 
divine  right  of  kings,  and  believing  that  the  State  has  a 
right  to  determine  all  the  forms  of  religious  worship. 
Andrew  Melville  once  drove  him  to  fury,  almost,  by  telling 
him  that  there  were  two  kings  in  Scotland  —  James  and 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  in  the  church,  Christ  was  king, 
and  that  James  was  his  subject.  Near  the  beginning  of 
his  reign  the  king  called  a  conference  at  Hampton  Court, 
where  he  heard  so  many  distasteful  things  that  he  finally 
broke  up  the  conference,  saying  of  the  Non-conformists: 
*'  I  will  make  them  conform  or  else  harry  them  out  of  the 
land." 

Things  became  more  and  more  unpleasant  for  all  non- 
conforming Englishmen,  and  the  little  company  in  Scrooby 
began  at  last  to  think  of  emigrating  to  the  continent.  Hol- 
land was  at  that  time  the  place  of  refuge  for  all  persecuted 
people,  and  so  to  Holland  they  decided  to  go.  The  first 
attempt  was  made  in  the  year  1607.    They  hired  an  Eng- 

[21] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

lish  captain  to  take  them  to  Holland,  but  the  rascal  having 
gotten  them  all  on  board,  turned  them  over  to  the  English 
officers,  who  threw  them  into  jail.  There  they  were  kept 
for  a  month.  At  the  end  of  the  month  all  were  released 
except  seven,  who  were  held  over  until  the  next  session  of 
the  court.  Not  at  all,  however,  dismayed  by  this  unhappy 
outcome  of  their  effort,  they  made  the  attempt  in  the 
spring  of  the  next  year.  This  time  they  hired  a  Dutch 
captain,  telling  him  of  their  former  experience,  and  urging 
him  to  be  true  to  them.  On  the  day  appointed  he  met 
them  according  to  his  promise,  on  a  lonely  stretch  of  shore, 
but  after  the  first  boat  load  had  been  put  aboard,  English 
officers  appeared  on  the  shore,  and  the  Dutch  captain, 
fearful  of  losing  his  liberty  and  his  ship,  immediately  set 
sail,  leaving  most  of  the  company  behind.  It  is  not  easy 
to  conceive  of  the  consternation  of  those  on  the  ship,  or 
the  distress  of  those  on  the  land.  Most  of  those  who  had 
been  put  on  board  the  ship  were  women  and  children,  only 
a  few  men  being  carried  in  the  first  boat.  They  had  noth- 
ing with  them  but  the  clothes  on  their  backs.  What  little 
money  belonged  to  the  company  was  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  remained  on  the  shore.  In  some  cases  husbands  and 
wives  were  separated,  and  the  outlook  for  all  was  dismal. 
I  cannot  do  better  at  this  point  than  simply  to  quote  a 
few  sentences  from  the  history  written  by  William  Brad- 
ford. 

"  But  pitiful  it  was  to  see  ye  heavie  case  of  these  poore 
women  in  this  distress;  what  weeping  and  crying  on  every 
side,  some  for  their  husbands,  that  were  carried  away  in 
ye  ship  as  is  before  related;  others  not  knowing  what 
should  become  of  them,  and  their  little  ones;  others  againe 
melted  in  teares,  seeing  their  poore  little  ones  aboute  them, 
crying  for  feare,  and  quaking  with  could. 

[  22  ] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

"  They  were  hurried  from  one  place  to  another,  and 
from  one  justice  to  another,  till  in  ye  ende  they  knew  not 
what  to  doe  with  them;  for  to  imprison  so  many  women 
and  innocent  children  for  no  other  cause  (many  of  them) 
but  that  they  must  goe  with  their  husbands,  seemed  to  be 
unreasonable  and  all  would  crie  out  of  them;  and  to  send 
them  home  againe  was  as  difficult,  for  they  aledged,  as  ye 
trueth  was,  they  had  no  homes  to  goe  to,  for  they  had  either 
sould,  or  otherwise  disposed  of  their  houses  and  livings. 
To  be  shorte,  after  they  had  been  thus  turmoyled  a  good 
while,  and  conveyed  from  one  constable  to  another,  they 
were  glad  to  be  ridd  of  them  in  ye  end  upon  any  terms ;  for 
all  were  wearied  and  tired  with  them.  Though  in  ye  mean 
time  they  (poore  soules)  indured  miserie  enough;  and 
thus  in  ye  end  necesitie  forste  a  way  for  them." 

Men  and  women  of  such  grit  and  pluck  could  not  be 
finally  thwarted  in  the  accomplishment  of  their  purpose. 
And  again  quoting  the  words  of  Bradford:  "  In  ye  end, 
notwithstanding  all  these  stormes  of  opposition,  they  all 
gatt  over  at  length,  some  at  one  time  and  some  at  another, 
and  some  in  one  place  and  some  in  another,  and  mette 
togeather  againe  according  to  their  desires,  with  no  small 
rejoycing." 

And  so  in  the  year  1608  a  goodly  number  of  these  Pil- 
grims found  themselves  in  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  to  which 
city  there  had  already  come  a  number  of  English  exiles, 
also  seeking  liberty.  These  exiles,  however,  were  far  from 
happy  even  in  Holland,  for  fierce  and  irreconcilable  dif- 
ferences had  broken  out  among  them,  and  the  atmosphere 
of  the  English  colony  was  so  torn  with  storm  that  after 
living  there  for  nearly  a  year  the  Scrooby  Pilgrims  deemed 
it  wise  to  go  on  to  Leyden.  It  was  in  the  summer  of  1609 
that  the  change  was  made.    And  here  for  eleven  years  they 

[  23  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

enjoyed,  as  Brewster  says,  "  much  sweet  and  delightful 
society,  and  spiritual  comfort  together  in  the  ways  of 
God."  We  do  not  know  a  great  deal  about  those  eleven 
years,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  this  time  on  the 
little  that  we  know.  It  is  enough  to  remember  that  their 
minister  was  John  Robinson,  one  of  the  most  learned  and 
spiritual  and  noble  of  men,  and  that  his  congregation 
numbered  about  three  hundred.  Most  of  the  members 
were  quite  poor  and  were  compelled  to  work  hard.  William 
Brewster  at  first  taught  English,  and  later  on  set  up  a 
printing  office.  Bradford  was  a  fustian  worker.  The  life 
of  all  of  them  was  discouraging  and  exhausting,  and  after 
they  had  been  there  a  few  years  they  began  to  make  in- 
quiries as  to  a  possible  refuge  elsewhere.  In  the  first  place, 
they  were  afraid  that  their  colony  might  become  extinct. 
They  had  hoped  on  coming  to  Holland  that  many  of  their 
English  friends  would  follow  them,  but  in  these  expecta- 
tions they  had  been  disappointed.  Moreover,  Leyden  was 
at  that  time  a  city  of  a  hundred  thousand,  and  like  all 
large  cities  had  in  it  many  bad  boys  and  girls,  and  these 
boys  and  girls  were  constantly  leading  the  children  of  the 
Pilgrims  astray.  Because  they  were  so  poor,  and  be- 
cause they  had  to  work  so  hard,  and  because  their  children 
were  in  danger,  they  became  convinced  that  they  had 
not  yet  found  a  permanent  home.  Moreover,  they  had  in 
them  the  genuine  missionary  spirit.  They  had  heard 
much  of  a  great  new  world  lying  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  whose  inhabitants  had  never  been  taught  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  when  they  began  to  think  of 
seeking  a  new  home,  it  was  natural  that  their  thoughts 
should  run  across  the  sea.  Bradford  tells  us  that  *'  they 
had  a  great  hope  that  they  might  lay  some  good  foundation 
for  advancing  the  gospel  in  those  remote  parts  of  the  world, 

[24] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

even  though   they  should  be  only  as  stepping  stones  to 
others  for  the  performing  of  so  great  a  work." 

But  it  was  not  easy  for  them  to  decide  in  what  part  of 
the  new  world  to  settle.  At  one  time  they  thought  of  going 
to  Guiana,  but  reports  from  that  quarter  being  so  dis- 
couraging, they  decided  not  to  go.  Virginia  was  strongly 
recommended  by  some,  but  Virginia  was  at  last  voted 
down.  At  one  time  an  effort  was  made  to  induce  them  to 
come  to  New  Amsterdam,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson, 
but  this  also  did  not  permanently  appeal  to  them.  New 
England  was  considered  undesirable  because  of  its  ex- 
tremely cold  winters.  It  was  finally  decided  that  they 
should  settle  somewhere  near  the  mouth  of  the  Dela- 
ware. 

We  should  pause  at  this  point  to  ponder  the  magnitude 
of  the  courage  of  the  men  who  decided  to  cross  the  Atlantic 
ocean  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1620.  The  Atlantic  was 
far  wider  in  those  days  than  it  is  now.  You  must  measure 
the  width  of  an  ocean  not  by  a  yardstick,  but  by  the  clock. 
Measuring  it  in  that  way,  the  Atlantic  ocean  in  the  time  of 
the  Pilgrims  was  30,000  miles  wude.  It  required  nine  weeks 
to  cross  it.  Moreover  it  was  a  mysterious  and  forbidding 
land.  One  is  surprised  in  reading  the  history  of  the  early 
seventeenth  century  to  find  how  many  settlements  were 
attempted,  only  to  end  in  failure.  The  difficulties  were 
so  numerous  and  the  hardships  were  so  awful,  and  the 
perils  were  so  daunting,  that  only  the  stoutest-hearted  of 
men  and  women  were  equal  to  so  great  an  undertaking.  A 
few  years  before  the  Pilgrims  sailed  a  company  of  English- 
men under  George  Popham  had  made  a  settlement  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Kennebunk  river,  but  some  of  the  com- 
pany having  died,  the  rest  became  discouraged,  and  they 
all  hastened  back  to  England  again.     Of  a  hundred  and 

[25] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

fifty  Englishmen  who  sailed  in  a  ship  for  Virginia,  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  died  on  the  voyage.  Stories  of  these  dis- 
asters all  reached  Holland,  but  none  of  these  things  moved 
the  Pilgrims.  Having  decided  to  emigrate  to  the  new 
world,  their  hearts  did  not  fail  them. 

One  of  their  greatest  difficulties  was  to  secure  means  of 
transportation.  It  was  not  easy  to  get  anybody  to  finance 
the  trip.  Finally  they  succeeded  in  interesting  a  body  of 
London  merchants,  and  through  their  assistance  a  little 
vessel  called  the  Speedwell  was  bought,  and  a  larger  vessel 
called  the  Mayflower  was  chartered.  Nobody  knows  how 
the  Mayflower  looked,  no  painter  thought  it  worth  while 
to  paint  her,  no  artist  took  the  trouble  to  sketch  her.  All 
the  pictures  of  the  Mayflower  which  you  have  seen  are 
nothing  more  than  the  creations  of  some  artist's  imagina- 
tion. And  yet,  we  know,  in  general,  her  appearance.  We 
know  that  she  was  small,  having  a  tonnage  of  only  180 
tons;  we  know  that  she  must  have  looked  very  much  like 
many  other  ships  of  her  own  size,  descriptions  of  which 
have  been  preserved  for  us.  She  deserves  a  place  in  the 
list  of  ships  that  might  rightly  be  called  immortal.  One  of 
the  others  was  the  ship  that  carried  Columbus  from  the 
old  world  to  the  new;  another  one  was  the  little  ship  that 
carried  Paul  from  Asia  into  Europe;  and  shall  we  name  also 
the  little  boat  on  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  slept  one  day 
in  the  midst  of  a  storm? 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  departure  from  Leyden. 
It  is  enough  to  know  that  the  parting  was  a  sad  one.  Only 
those  were  to  go  to  America  who  had  volunteered,  and  a 
majority  of  the  church  decided  to  stay  in  Leyden.  The 
pastor  staid  with  the  majority.  The  Pilgrims  came  to 
America  without  a  minister.  It  was  the  Speedwell  that 
carried  the  members  of  the  Leyden  church  to  Southamp- 

[26] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

ton,  and  there  it  was  joined  by  the  Mayflower.  After  a 
long  controversy  with  the  merchants  in  regard  to  financial 
matters,  the  two  ships  finally  set  sail  on  August  fifteenth. 
Before  they  had  proceeded  far,  the  Speedwell  began  to  leak, 
and  so  it  was  necessary  that  both  ships  should  return  to 
England,  putting  in  at  the  little  Devonshire  harbor  of 
Dartmouth.  The  repairs  having  been  completed,  on 
September  second,  they  sailed  again.  After  proceeding 
about  three  hundred  miles,  the  Speedwell  began  to  leak 
again,  and  it  was  necessary  for  both  ships  to  return  to 
England,  this  time  anchoring  in  the  harbor  at  Plymouth. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  hearts  of  some  of  the  com- 
pany began  to  fail,  and  that  twenty  returned  to  London. 
It  was  now  decided  not  to  take  the  Speedwell  again,  and 
so  all  the  Pilgrims  —  a  hundred  and  two  in  number  — 
boarded  the  Mayflower.  In  this  continuous  sifting  of  the 
settlers  of  New  England  one  is  reminded  of  the  sifting  of 
the  army  of  Gideon.  In  the  first  place,  only  the  bravest 
of  Englishmen  ventured  to  cross  into  Holland,  only  the 
bravest  of  the  Holland  company  decided  to  sail  for  America, 
and  only  the  bravest  of  this  company  outlived  the  dis- 
heartenment  caused  by  the  leaking  of  the  Speedwell. 
They  were  indeed  a  company  of  heroes  who  sailed  on 
September  sixteenth  on  the  Mayflower. 

It  is  singular  how,  again  and  again  in  human  history, 
nature  has  done  its  utmost  to  thwart  the  efforts  of  men  in 
great  movements  which  were  evidently  according  to  the 
will  of  God.  No  sooner  was  the  Mayflower  in  mid- Atlantic 
than  a  series  of  fierce  storms  broke  upon  her,  and  in  one  of 
these  storms  one  of  her  main  beams  became  sprung  and 
cracked.  So  imminent  was  the  danger  that  a  conference 
was  held  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  advisability 
of  giving  up  the  whole  undertaking.     On  investigation  it 

[27] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

was  discovered  that  the  cracked  beam  could  be  forced 
back  into  its  place  again,  and  this  repair  having  been 
made,  the  little  vessel  once  more  proceeded  on  her  way. 
It  was  on  November  nineteenth,  more  than  nine  weeks 
after  leaving  Plymouth,  that  the  Mayflower  cast  anchor 
near  Cape  Cod.  It  had  been  their  intention  to  make  a 
settlement  somewhere  south  of  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson, 
but  finding  that  they  had  gotten  far  out  of  their  course 
they  turned  the  prow  of  the  Mayflower  to  the  south.  But 
here  again  nature  seemed  to  be  determined  to  resist  them. 
Not  only  did  the  Atlantic  become  shallow,  but  a  fierce 
storm  threw  itself  across  their  way,  and  turning  back  they 
cast  anchor,  this  time  in  the  harbor  of  what  is  now  called 
Province  town.  William  Bradford  says  that  "  they  fell 
upon  their  knees  and  blessed  ye  God  of  heaven,  who  had 
brought  them  over  ye  vast  and  furious  ocean,  and  de- 
livered them  from  all  ye  periles  and  miseries  thereof,  againe 
to  set  their  feete  on  ye  firme  and  stable  earth,  their  proper 
elemente." 

It  was  on  a  Saturday  while  the  Mayflower  was  at  anchor 
in  the  harbor  of  Provincetown  that  the  men  of  the  May- 
flower drew  up  and  signed  their  famous  compact.  For 
the  information  of  all  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  listening 
to  this  sermon,  let  me  present  the  compact  entire: 

"In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names  are 
underwritten,  the  loyall  Subjects  of  our  dread  soveraigne 
Lord  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God  of  Great  Britaine, 
France,  and  Ireland  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  &c. 

Having  undertaken  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  advance- 
ment of  the  Christian  Faith,  and  honour  of  our  King  and 
Countrey,  a  Voyage  to  plant  the  first  Colony  in  the  North- 
erne  parts  of  Virginia,  doe  by  these  presents  solemnly  and 
mutually  in   the  presence  of    God   and  one  of  another, 

[28] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

covenant,  and  combine  ourselves  together  into  a  civill 
body  politike,  for  our  better  ordering  and  preservation, 
and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid;  and  by  vertue 
hereof  to  enact,  constitute  and  frame  such  just  and  equall 
Lawes,  Ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  offices  from  time 
to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient 
for  the  generall  good  of  the  Colony ;  unto  which  we  promise 
all  due  submission  and  obedience. 

In  witness  whereof  we  have,  hereunder  subscribed  our 
names,  Cape  Cod,  11  of  November,  in  the  yeare  of  the 
raigne  of  our  soveraigne  Lord  King  James,  of  England, 
France,  and  Ireland  18,  and  of  Scotland  54.  Anno  Domini 
1620." 

About  a  month  was  now  spent  in  making  explorations. 
On  Monday,  December  twenty-first,  they  set  foot  on  the 
mainland  where  Plymouth  now  is. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  at  this  time  to  tell  the  chapter  of 
the  hardships  and  sufferings  which  now  opened.  The  trib- 
ulations of  the  first  winter  were  never  forgotten  by  any- 
body who  passed  through  them.  In  the  months  of  January 
and  February,  51  of  their  number  died.  Sometimes  two  and 
three  died  in  a  single  day.  At  one  time  there  were  only 
six  or  seven  of  the  entire  colony  that  were  able  to  be  up 
and  around.  It  looked  as  though  possibly  not  one  of  them 
would  survive.  They  used  to  bury  their  dead  at  night, 
and  carefully  smooth  over  the  soil  where  the  graves  had 
been  made  in  order  that  the  Indians  prowling  round  might 
not  discover  how  great  were  their  losses.  But  as  William 
Brewster  once  said:  ''  It  is  not  with  us  as  with  men  whom 
small  things  can  discourage,  or  small  discontentments 
cause  to  wish  themselves  home  again." 

These  men  and  women  could  not  be  disheartened,  they 
had  come  to  America,  and  they  had  come  to  stay    They 

[29] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

had  come  to  this  country  for  the  sake  of  religion;  it  was 
for  the  liberty  to  worship  God  in  a  way  that  they  felt  sure 
God  had  ordained  that  they  were  willing  to  face  all  dangers. 
We  are  in  the  habit  of  speaking  much  about  our  political 
liberty;  we  have  aright  to  rejoice  in  it,  but  it  should  never 
be  forgotten  that  our  political  liberty  came  out  of  a  passion 
for  religious  liberty.  It  was  because  men  were  determined 
to  worship  God  free  from  the  dictates  of  the  State  that  by 
and  by  there  was  liberty  both  in  the  Church  and  in  the 
State.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  love  of  money  is  the 
mightiest  force  in  the  world.  We  are  told  that  men  are 
willing  to  endure  every  hardship  for  the  sake  of  making 
money,  but  the  experience  of  the  Pilgrims  proves  that  there 
is  a  mightier  force  in  human  nature  than  love  of  money, 
and  that  is  the  love  of  God.  The  colonies  planted  as  com- 
mercial enterprises  on  the  coast  of  New  England  in  the 
early  seventeenth  century  all  went  to  pieces,  unable  to 
stand  the  strain  of  the  terrific  forces  which  played  upon 
them.  But  the  Plymouth  colony,  composed  of  men  who 
were  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  religion,  endured.  It  is 
devotion  to  God  and  to  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  that  is  able 
to  bear  all  things,  believe  all  things,  hope  all  things  and 
endure  all  things. 

It  was  on  the  fifth  day  of  April  that  the  Mayflower 
started  on  its  return  voyage.  There  were  only  about 
fifty  of  the  original  company  left;  twenty-one  of  these 
were  men,  and  six  were  lads  old  enough  to  work.  The  re- 
mainder were  women  and  children.  When  the  time  came 
for  the  Mayflower  to  depart,  not  one  of  the  Pilgrims  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  return,  not  a  man  was  dismayed,  not  a 
woman  was  afraid.  I  love  to  think  of  them  as  they  stood 
there  on  the  shore  watching  the  Mayflower  sail  out  to  sea, 
I  love  to  fancy  the  wistful  look  in  their  eyes  as  they  saw 

[30] 


THE  PILGRIMS 

the  ship  grow  smaller  and  smaller  until  at  last  it  was  only 
a  speck  on  the  horizon,  and  then  finally  disappeared  alto- 
gether. If  I  were  a  painter  I  should  paint  that  picture. 
It  is  one  of  the  great  scenes  in  the  history  of  the  world. 


[31] 


Ill  > 

THE   PURITANS  OF  NEW   ENGLAND^ 

"  These  are  not  drunken y — Acts  2  :  15. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  first  sermon  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian preacher  began  with  an  apology.  A  strange  thing  had 
happened  in  Jerusalem.  One  hundred  and  twenty  men  and 
women,  for  many  days  sad  and  glum,  had  suddenly  be- 
come radiant  and  vocal.  A  phenomenon  so  unusual  de- 
manded an  explanation.  An  explanation  was  immediately 
forthcoming.  Men  were  at  hand  ready  to  say  that  all  this 
hilarity  and  boisterousness  were  due  to  an  excitation  of 
the  nerves,  induced  by  a  free  indulgence  in  alcoholic 
liquors.  "  These  men  are  drunk  !  "  the  scoffers  said,  and 
Peter  took  hold  of  the  black  lie  and  strangled  it.  "  These 
are  not  drunken,"  he  declared,  and  then  went  on  to  prove 
the  truth  of  his  assertion  by  an  argument  which,  however 
weak  to  the  occidental  mind  in  a  changed  environment, 
was  altogether  convincing  to  the  men  to  whom  it  was 
delivered.  The  crowd,  which  began  with  thinking  that 
the  Apostolic  company  were  drunk,  went  away  with  the 
conviction  that  these  men  and  women  had  been  indeed 
baptized  with  the  spirit  of  the  Eternal. 

Why  did  Peter  pay  attention  to  a  sneer?  Why  did  he 
not  ignore  the  calumny  and  go  on  and  proclaim  his  truth? 
Because  he  was  in  dead  earnest  to  make  room  in  Jerusalem 
for  a  message  of  vast  significance,  and  he  knew  that  truth 
can  gain  no  admittance  into  hearts  filled  with  prejudice 

1  Dec.  20,  1903. 

[32] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  scorn.  Spiritual  influences  cannot  flow  through  souls 
which  are  choked  with  hate.  A  teacher  of  religion  must 
not  only  possess  a  truth,  but  he  himself  must  have  a  reputa- 
tion which  will  incline  the  ears  of  men  to  listen.  A  man 
supposedly  drunk,  even  though  entirely  sober,  can  teach 
the  world  nothing  about  God.  Men  shut  themselves  out 
from  the  influence  of  any  teacher  against  whom  they 
cherish  a  fixed  dislike.  We  are  reached  and  moulded  only 
by  those  in  whom  we  have  confidence  and  for  whom  we 
feel  a  genuine  respect.  Peter  knew  that  the  progress  of 
the  Christian  church  could  be  blocked  by  false  ideas  of 
the  character  and  spirit  of  its  members,  and  so,  before  he 
delivers  his  message  of  Jesus  and  the  resurrection,  he  tears 
to  tatters  a  falsehood  concerning  himself  and  his  com- 
panions. Having  once  opened  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
those  before  him  by  freeing  them  from  the  grip  of  a  false 
impression,  he  proceeded  to  sow  the  seed  which  brought 
forth  a  glorious  harvest. 

The  Apostles  have  had  their  successors  in  many  lands 
and  times,  and  the  experiences  of  Apostolic  days  are  again 
and  again  repeated.  Whenever  and  wherever  a  company 
of  men,  baptized  from  on  high,  have  entered  on  the  work 
of  battering  down  customs  which  were  wrong  and  chang- 
ing standards  which  were  low,  and  have  given  themselves  to 
the  task  of  turning  life  into  new  channels  and  establishing 
in  society  loftier  ideals,  the  world  has  gnashed  its  teeth 
at  them,  and  all  the  air  about  them  has  been  darkened  by 
great  swarms  of  calumnies  and  slanders.  If  a  hero  cannot 
be  struck  down  by  a  dagger,  he  is  certain  at  least  to  be 
pelted  and  covered  with  mud.  Just  in  proportion  to  the 
strength  of  the  reformers,  and  the  radical  thoroughness  of 
their  proposed  reformation,  is  the  vituperation  abundant 
and  the  hatred  intense. 

[33] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

Now,  of  all  the  men  who  have  played  a  part  in  history 
since  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  the  Puritans  were  the  loftiest 
in  their  ideals,  and  the  most  vigorous  and  uncompromising 
in  their  action.  They  gripped  the  world  so  tightly  that  the 
prints  of  their  fingers  are  on  it  still.  The  English  refor- 
mation under  Henry  VIII  was  a  superficial  and  half- 
hearted thing.  Henry  VIII  was  born  a  Roman  Catholic, 
and  a  Catholic  he  remained  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He 
hated  Martin  Luther,  his  doctrines  and  his  followers,  and 
so  fiercely  did  he  attack  the  German  heretic  that  the  Pope 
called  him  the  Defender  of  the  Faith.  But  one  day  the  will 
of  the  King  and  the  will  of  the  Pope  clashed,  and  the  King 
in  hot  wrath  declared,  "  I  will  be  henceforth  the  head  of 
the  English  church."  Various  modifications  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical machinery  were  introduced,  and  England  became 
nominally  Protestant  under  a  reputedly  Protestant  king. 
But  Henry  VIII,  even  when  called  a  Protestant,  held  to 
the  great  mass  of  Roman  Catholic  traditions  and  dogmas, 
discarding  for  the  most  part  those  only  which  denied  his 
supremacy  as  the  head  of  the  English  church.  What  was 
true  of  Henry  VIII  was  true,  under  limitations,  of  his 
illustrious  daughter  Elizabeth.  She  figures  in  history  as 
a  Protestant,  but  her  religion  was  not  deep.  She  was  un- 
scrupulous and  profane,  conservative  in  her  tastes  and 
church  practices,  looking  with  mingled  fear  and  disgust 
upon  a  body  of  Englishmen,  who  having  started  upon  the 
work  of  reform  were  determined  to  carry  it  through.  For 
however  conservative  and  worldly  wise  were  the  rulers  of 
England,  there  was  an  increasing  class  of  Christian  Eng- 
lish men  and  women  who  had  in  them  the  old  Teutonic 
love  of  veracity  and  thoroughness.  They  went  to  the 
roots  of  things.  They  saw  that  the  disease  of  Christendom 
could  not  be  cured  by  sundry  changes  in  the  ecclesiastical 

[34] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

machine.  They  went  to  the  Bible  and  from  its  pages 
learned  that  no  man,  be  he  called  priest  or  Bishop  or  Pope 
or  King,  has  a  right  to  come  between  the  human  soul  and 
God.  Thrilled  by  this  great  vision,  they  dared  to  array 
themselves  against  the  world.  England  in  the  sixteenth 
century  was  frightfully  corrupt.  Polite  society  was  full 
of  drunkenness  and  debauchery.  The  nobility  were  in 
many  cases  unspeakably  unclean.  The  court  was,  at  least 
in  spots,  rotten.  The  stage  was  sometimes  blasphemous 
and  always  foul.  Art  was  often  vile  and  degrading.  Fic- 
tion was  for  the  most  part  vulgar  and  obscene.  Conver- 
sation, even  in  high  circles,  was  profane  and  nasty.  The 
church,  like  the  nation,  was  laden  with  iniquity.  The 
whole  head  was  sick  and  the  whole  heart  was  faint.  From 
the  sole  of  the  foot  even  unto  the  head,  there  were  wounds 
and  bruises  and  festering  sores.  Laymen  in  appalling 
numbers  knew  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  even 
church  officials  were  in  many  cases  ignorant  and  dissolute. 
Against  all  this  a  growing  band  of  enthusiastic  reformers 
made  ceaseless  and  uncompromising  war.  With  astound- 
ing audacity  they  spurned  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil.  They  turned  their  back  upon  the  stage,  the  novel, 
the  pictures,  the  fashion  and  pride  of  society;  yea,  they 
resisted  priest  and  prelate  and  Pope,  spurned  courtier  and 
noble,  and  called  in  question  the  alleged  rights  of  Parlia- 
ments and  kings.  Against  the  flood  of  worldliness  and  vice 
they  set  themselves  like  rock.  In  an  age  of  widespread 
corruption  they  cried,  "  The  church  of  God  on  earth  must 
be  clean  !  "  To  them  all  ceremonies  were  sham  and  mum- 
mery so  long  as  the  heart  was  estranged  from  God.  To 
cleanse  the  church  and  keep  it  clean,  to  free  it  from  doctrinal 
accretions  and  debasing  superstitions  and  the  sins  which 
had  robbed  it  of  its  power,  this  was  their  steadfast  and 

[35] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

passionate  endeavor.  "  Puritans  !  "  men  cried  in  derision, 
because  they  worked  tirelessly  for  purity.  "  Puritan  !  " 
The  word  was  coined  on  lips  of  scorn,  and  had  in  it  the 
heat  of  a  hot  disdain.  Even  today,  when  the  word  is 
spoken  in  certain  circles,  the  old  fire  of  contempt  bursts 
into  flame  again. 

Some  of  these  men  were  sent  to  heaven  robed  in  flames 
in  the  reign  of  bloody  Mary;  a  few  were  hung,  and  more 
were  driven  into  exile  in  the  reign  of  good  Queen  Bess.  A 
much  larger  number  were  driven  into  Holland  in  the  reign 
of  James  I,  and  a  great  host  left  the  country  in  the  reign 
of  the  first  Charles.  Of  the  refugees  from  the  tyranny  of 
Charles  and  his  relentless  ministers,  twenty-six  thousand 
came  to  New  England,  and  it  is  of  these  to  which  your 
thought  is  now  directed. 

No  other  set  of  men  who  ever  came  to  the  New  World 
have  been  so  much  written  about  and  talked  about  as  these 
twenty-six  thousand  Englishmen.  More  books  and  pam- 
phlets have  been  published  about  the  Puritan  common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts  Bay  than  about  the  entire  eight- 
eenth century  with  its  great  revolutionary  war.  More 
orations  and  addresses  and  lectures  have  been  delivered 
dealing  with  the  Puritans  than  have  been  spoken  about  all 
the  other  classes  of  our  population  put  together.  For 
some  reason  the  world  cannot  let  these  men  alone. 
For  over  two  hundred  years  pens  and  tongues  have  been 
busy,  eager  to  tell  the  story  of  what  they  attempted 
and  accomplished.  Even  now  new  books  appear  each 
succeeding  year,  exploiting  their  blunders  or  eulogizing 
their  virtues.  Everything  they  ever  did  or  said,  or  felt  or 
thought,  has  been  analyzed  and  critically  inspected. 
Every  feature  of  their  conduct  has  been  subjected  to 
the   X-rays   of   historical  criticism.      No   light   that  ever 

[36] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

beat  upon  a  throne  was  so  fierce  as  that  which  for  two 
hundred  years  has  beaten  on  the  heads  of  these  New 
England  exiles. 

What  men  have  been  so  praised,  eulogized,  exalted  as 
these  have  been?  They  have  been  placed  on  pedestals, 
lifted  far  above  the  heads  of  ordinary  mortals,  until  at 
times  they  have  seemed  more  than  human,  and  to  belong 
rather  to  a  race  of  demigods.  They  have  been  painted  often 
with  halos  round  their  heads.  By  men  who  have  lost  the 
sense  of  true  proportion  they  have  been  pictured  as  so 
many  colossuses  bestriding  the  narrow  world,  while  all 
other  men  are  dwarfed  into  insignificance  in  the  shadow 
of  their  huge  legs.  They  have  been  represented  as  para- 
gons of  virtue,  examples  of  wisdom,  patterns  of  piety,  the 
inccirnation  and  quintessence  of  all  human  excellence. 
Even  their  blunders  have  been  decked  with  laurel,  their 
perversities  covered  over  with  leaves  of  roses,  and  their 
crimson  sins  washed  white  in  the  flowing  breath  of  in- 
discriminating  praise. 

But  the  praise  has  been  more  than  matched  by  the 
abuse.  What  men  have  been  so  egregiously  misunder- 
stood, so  outrageously  misrepresented,  so  persistently 
maligned,  caricatured  and  hated?  They  have  been  pic- 
tured as  coarse  and  cruel  and  despicable;  as  narrow- 
hearted  persecutors  and  narrow-headed  fanatics;  as 
barbarians,  destitute  of  taste  and  affection;  as  crabbed 
and  crooked  cranks;  as  glum-faced,  sour-eyed  Pharisees 
and  hypocrites,  unhappy  themselves  and  rendering  miser- 
able everybody  with  whom  they  had  to  do.  This  stream 
of  vituperation  has  flowed  in  a  steady  stream  through 
two  hundred  years;  and  even  today  there  are  men  so 
exceeding  mad  against  them  that  they  dig  up  the  skeletons 
of  these  vanished  culprits  and  hang  them  on  the  gibbet  for 

[37] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

public  execration.  Anonymous  scribblers  in  various  papers 
still  pelt  them  with  scurrilous  and  flippant  things,  and 
after-dinner  speakers  provoke  applause  by  publicly  thank- 
ing God  that  the  Puritans  are  dead.  In  divers  ways  the 
idea  is  kept  alive  that  these  men  were  drunk,  soaked  with 
bigotry  and  fanaticism,  beside  themselves  with  supersti- 
tious frenzy,  intoxicated  to  the  verge  of  madness  by  a 
spirit  from  the  pit.  There  are  Americans  now  alive  to 
whom  the  entire  seventeenth  century  of  New  England 
history  is  a  vast  Sahara  desert,  with  scarcely  an  oasis  in  it 
to  cheer  the  eye  or  warm  the  heart;  a  cold  and  dreary 
age  of  ice,  in  which  titanic  and  ungovernable  forces  wrought 
a  widespread  desolation. 

This  is  much  to  be  regretted.  It  matters  nothing  to 
the  Puritans  what  the  twentieth  century  thinks  of  them, 
but  it  matters  much  to  the  twentieth  century.  No  men 
can  influence  us  whom  w,e  despise,  and  they  who  scorn 
the  Puritans  and  execrate  their  memory  build  a  barrier 
between  themselves  and  a  company  of  God's  elect.  No 
man  or  nation  can  afford  to  ignore  or  despise  any  company 
of  men  who  have  honestly  striven  to  serve  God  in  their 
day  and  generation.  Our  republic  needs  all  the  strength 
and  inspiration  which  bygone  heroes  have  to  give,  and 
Puritanism,  with  all  its  limitations  and  deficiencies,  is 
surely  one  of  the  springs  at  which  America  must  drink, 
if  like  a  strong  man  we  are  to  run  the  race  and  reach  the 
goal.  There  are  great  and  critical  times  ahead  of  us. 
Vast  problems  loom  up  before  us,  and  huge  dangers  hang 
ominous  and  black  upon  the  horizon.  What  struggles, 
what  tempests,  what  reformations,  what  revolutions,  what 
agonies  of  strife  and  baptisms  of  blood  may  lie  ahead  of  us 
no  one  can  say,  but  this  much  is  certain,  we  cannot  afford 
to  face  the  future  and  dare  its  perils  without  the  princi- 

[381 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

pies  by  which  the  Puritan  lived  and  conquered.  Much 
that  was  his  we  do  not  care  for.  His  fashions  and  cus- 
toms, his  science  and  philosophy,  his  political  economy  and 
theology,  all  these  have  been  outgrown  and  are  forever- 
more  discarded,  but  the  Puritan  spirit,  his  temper,  courage, 
tenacity  of  will,  and  passionate  and  unconquerable  de- 
votion, all  these  we  need  and  must  have;  without  them 
the  republic  must  inevitably  perish.  Woe  unto  us  if 
through  prejudice  or  stubborn  pride  we  shut  our  hearts 
to  the  influence  of  the  very  men  whose  help  we  are  most 
of  all  in  need  of. 

These  are  not  drunken  !  In  order  to  prove  them  drunk, 
various  stories  have  been  circulated  and  divers  calumnies 
have  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation 
which,  even  to  this  day,  are  among  the  uninformed  faith- 
fully cherished  and  believed.  What  I  purpose  now  saying  is 
well  known  to  every  student  of  history,  but  for  the  infor- 
mation of  our  boys  and  girls,  and  for  the  strengthening 
of  our  young  men  and  young  women  who  have  already 
heard  many  an  anti-Puritan  sneer,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
older  people  who  have  not  had  the  time  for  extended  his- 
torical reading,  let  me  take  up  seven  pieces  of  mud  which 
the  world  has  kept  on  hurling  at  the  Puritans  of  New 
England,  and  show  you  how  readily  they  crumble  under 
the  touch  of  historic  fact. 

I.  The  first  accusation  is  that  the  Puritans  of  New 
England  were  cruel  to  the  Indians,  an  unpardonable  sin, 
of  course,  in  men  making  high  professions  of  piety.  This 
calumny  is  often  expressed  in  the  well-known  line,  "  They 
fell  on  their  knees  and  then  on  the  aborigines."  All  of 
which  is  funny,  but  false.  The  first  settlers  of  New  Eng- 
land fell  on  their  knees  and  then  proceeded  to  make  friends 
of  the  aborigines.     On  their  first  Thanksgiving  day,  Mas- 

[39] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

sasoit,  the  mightiest  chieftain  of  all  that  region,  and  ninety 
of  his  braves  were  entertained  and  feasted,  and  with  this 
Massasoit,  Plymouth  colony  then  and  there  made  a  treaty, 
offensive  and  defensive,  which  treaty  was  faithfully  and 
sacredly  kept,  both  by  the  red  men  and  the  white  men,  for 
more  than  fifty  years.  Fifty-six  years  after  the  landing  at 
Plymouth  Rock,  Governor  Winslow  was  able  to  say  that 
the  English  did  not  possess  one  foot  of  land  in  Plymouth 
colony  which  was  not  fairly  obtained  by  honest  purchase 
of  the  Indian  proprietors.  Because  there  were  then,  as 
there  are  in  every  community,  men  who  would  take  ad- 
vantage of  ignorance  and  weakness,  white  men  were  for- 
bidden by  law  to  purchase  or  receive  by  gift  any  land  of 
the  Indians  without  the  knowledge  and  allowance  of  the 
court.  The  officials  were  frequently  complained  of  be- 
cause of  the  partiality  shown  to  the  Indians.  All  the 
New  England  colonies  were  both  just  and  kind  in  their 
treatment  of  the  red  man.  To  Christianize  the  Indians 
had  been  one  of  the  ambitions  of  the  Puritans  before  they 
crossed  the  sea.  To  educate  him  was  one  of  the  dreams 
of  the  founders  of  Harvard  College.  One  of  the  first 
buildings  of  the  college  was  called  "  Indian  Building," 
and  great  was  the  rejoicing  of  the  people  when,  after  years 
of  effort,  an  Indian  was  induced  to  complete  the  prescribed 
course  of  study  and  receive  a  diploma.  As  early  as  1643 
missionaries  were  at  work  among  the  Indians  along  the 
coast  and  on  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  three  years  later 
Massachusetts  enacted  that  two  persons  should  be  chosen 
annually  to  spread  the  Gospel  among  the  Indians.  Of 
all  who  engaged  in  that  difficult  work  one  man  stands 
out  supreme  and  immortal  —  John  Eliot.  Every  Ameri- 
can boy  ought  to  read  the  story  of  his  life.  With  daunt- 
less  patience   and   industry   he   mastered   the  Algonquin 

[40] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

language,  reducing  its  huge  mass  of  grunts  and  snorts,  its 
nasal  sounds  and  guttural  noises  to  grammatical  science, 
writing  at  the  end  of  the  grammar  this  fine  sentence, 
"  Prayer  and  pains,  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  will  do 
anything."  Eliot's  greatest  work  was  his  translation  of 
the  entire  Bible  into  the  Algonquin  tongue.  How  idle 
the  prattle  of  the  calumniators  sounds  in  the  presence  of 
this  huge  book,  a  lasting  and  monumental  testimony  to 
Puritan  patience  and  consecration,  and  an  indestructible 
proof  of  his  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  red  man.  When 
Dean  Stanley,  a  high  representative  of  the  Anglican 
church,  on  a  visit  to  this  country,  was  asked  what  place 
he  would  like  most  of  all  to  see,  he  replied,  "  Show  me 
where  the  Pilgrims  landed  and  where  the  Apostle  Eliot 
preached." 

But  how  about  the  Pequot  and  King  Philip's  wars? 
They  were  terrible,  but  they  were  both  brought  on  by  the 
follies  and  savagery  of  the  red  man.  There  are  men  with 
whom  even  kind  and  Christian  men  cannot  live  in  peace, 
and  such  men  were  the  Pequots  and  the  Narragansets. 
By  depredations  inexcusable  and  oft  repeated,  and  by 
murders  numerous  and  unprovoked,  these  tribes  drove 
the  Puritan  to  fight  for  his  continued  existence  on  New 
England  soil.  But  the  Puritan  was,  on  the  whole,  as 
kind  in  his  feeling  for,  and  as  just  in  his  treatment 
of,  the  red  man  as  William  Penn  himself;  and  if  there 
were  no  Indian  wars  in  Pennsylvania  while  William 
Penn  was  alive,  it  was  because  his  neighbors  were  the 
weak  and  nerveless  Delawares  and  the  English-loving 
Iroquois,  and  not  the  murderous  Pequots  and  the  fero- 
cious Narragansets. 

II.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the  awful  cruelty  of  the 
Puritans  in  driving  Roger  Williams  into  the  freezing  forest 

[41] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

in  the  depth  of  winter  for  no  other  reason  than  that  he 
was  a  Baptist,  and  believed  in  freedom  of  conscience.  The 
story,  as  commonly  told,  is  from  first  to  last  a  tissue  of 
falsehood.  In  the  first  place,  Roger  Williams  while  a 
citizen  of  Massachusetts  was  not  a  Baptist.  He  was  a 
Congregational  minister,  in  thorough  accord  with  his 
ministerial  brethren  in  all  doctrinal  matters.  It  was  not 
until  he  had  been  away  from  Massachusetts  for  two  years 
that  he  began  to  have  doubts  as  to  the  validity  of  baptism 
by  sprinkling,  and  asked  to  be  immersed  by  one  of  his 
friends.  But  his  new  convictions  were  not  long  satisfac- 
tory to  him.  In  a  few  months  he  began  to  doubt  the 
validity  of  his  new  baptism,  and  finally  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  no  one  was  then  alive  on  earth  who  had  a  right 
to  baptize  another.  He  called  himself  a  "  seeker,"  and 
such  he  remained  to  the  day  of  his  death.  His  views  of 
immersion  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  his  banish- 
ment. 

Nor  was  he  driven  by  the  government  into  the  forest 
in  the  middle  of  winter.  His  sentence  was  passed  on  the 
3d  day  of  September,  and  he  was  allowed  six  weeks  in  which 
to  depart.  He  was  free  to  go  in  any  direction  he  might 
choose,  either  to  England  or  to  his  former  friends  in  Plym- 
outh. At  the  end  of  the  six  weeks  he  was  sick,  and  so 
the  court  allowed  him  to  remain  in  Salem  until  spring, 
on  condition  that  he  desist  from  spreading  his  obnoxious 
views.  But  a  man  like  Roger  Williams  could  not  keep 
still.  He  held  meetings  in  his  house,  keeping  the  com- 
munity in  a  ferment;  and  so,  in  the  month  of  January,  the 
patience  of  the  officials  having  been  exhausted,  Williams 
was  ordered  to  come  to  Boston  and  embark  on  a  vessel 
about  to  sail  for  England.  This  he  refused  to  do.  He 
knew  what   English   prisons  were,   and   he   preferred   the 

[42] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

forests  of  America.  When,  therefore,  he  heard  that  officers 
were  coming  to  Salem  to  take  him  to  Boston  and  send  him 
to  England,  he  and  a  dozen  of  his  companions  took  to  the 
woods,  and  came  out  at  last  at  a  place  where  the  city  of 
Providence  now  stands.  He  was  not  driven  into  the 
woods.    He  went  there  rather  than  return  to  England. 

Why  was  he  banished?  Because  he  was  a  disturber  of 
the  peace.  This  he  was  from  the  beginning.  On  arriving 
in  Boston  in  1631,  he  at  once  reprimanded  the  church  of 
that  town  because  its  members  had  not  publicly  repented 
for  ever  having  had  communion  with  the  Anglican  church. 
This  seemed  somewhat  pert  in  a  Welshman  not  yet  thirty 
years  old,  and  some  of  the  Bostonians  resented  it.  From 
Boston  Williams  went  to  Salem  and  thence  to  Plymouth. 
While  at  the  latter  place  he  wrote  a  book  in  which  he 
denied  the  validity  of  the  charter  of  the  colony,  called 
King  James  a  liar  and  a  blasphemer,  and  the  reigning 
King  Charles  I  a  beast.  He  also  used  other  unsavory 
epithets  culled  from  the  rich  pages  of  the  book  of  the  Reve- 
lation. The  appearance  of  this  book  filled  the  officials  with 
alarm.  Relations  just  then  were  much  strained  between 
the  colony  and  the  king.  Men  walked  about  on  tiptoe 
and  scarcely  dared  to  draw  a  long  breath  for  fear  the  char- 
ter might  be  withdrawn,  and  they  proceeded  to  argue  with 
the  audacious  Welshman  and  show  him  the  error  of  his 
ways.  He  acknowledged  his  indiscretion  and  allowed  the 
book  to  be  burnt.  But  Roger  Williams  was  not  a  man 
capable  of  keeping  out  of  mischief.  As  Cotton  Mather 
once  said  of  him,  he  had  a  windmill  in  his  head.  A  recent 
historian  thinks  that  even  this  figure  hardly  does  justice 
to  all  the  facts  in  the  case.  He  was,  in  the  words  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  conscientiously  contentious.  He  was 
always  on  the  ofif  side.    He  never  agreed  with  those  around 

[43] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

him.  He  was  sweetly  but  provokingly  pugnacious.  He 
railed  against  the  magistrates  because  they  punished  men 
for  breaking  the  Sabbath.  This  he  said  they  had  no  right 
to  do  because  the  Fourth  Commandment  belongs  to  the 
first  table,  and  civil  authorities  have  to  do  only  with 
breaches  of  the  second  table  of  the  law. 

Because  times  were  troublous  and  many  strange  charac- 
ters were  coming  into  the  colony,  the  General  Court  passed 
a  law  making  it  necessary  for  all  men  to  take  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  government.  This  law  was  immediately 
attacked  by  Williams,  who  claimed  that  an  oath  is  an  act 
of  worship  and  that  to  compel  an  unregenerate  man  to 
engage  in  an  act  of  worship  is  to  compel  him  to  take  the 
name  of  God  in  vain.  A  little  later,  the  General  Court 
refusing  to  grant  a  certain  petition  of  the  people  of  Salem, 
Williams  wrote  to  all  the  churches  asking  them  to  dis- 
cipline the  members  of  the  court  who  had  refused  to  do 
Salem  justice.  When  these  churches  refused  to  act  upon 
his  advice,  he  wrote  letters  of  defamation  against  them 
and  asked  the  Salem  church  to  withdraw  fellowship  from 
them.  When  the  Salem  church  refused,  he  withdrew  his 
fellowship  from  it,  and  when  his  wife  persisted  in  still 
going  to  church  he  refused  to  pray  with  her.  Like  a  hero, 
he  stood  alone  against  the  world.  He  would  be  called  to- 
day "  cantankerous."  Wherever  he  went  he  got  the  com- 
munity into  a  turmoil.  The  leaders  of  Massachusetts  be- 
came convinced  that  he  was  a  dangerous  man  and  they 
told  him  to  go  away.  Whether  this  was  wise  or  not,  you 
must  be  judge.  In  passing  judgment  we  must  endeavor 
to  put  ourselves  back  into  the  seventeenth  century  into 
the  mood  and  circumstances  in  which  the  men  were  who 
had  to  deal  with  Roger  Williams.  Such  a  man  as  he  w^ould 
cause  us  no  concern  to-day.    The  ship  of  state  has  become 

[44] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

an  ocean  liner,  and  all  sorts  of  Roger  Williamses  can  jump 
and  run  upon  the  deck,  and  belch  out  their  follies,  insanities 
and  blasphemies  on  the  air,  while  the  old  ship  drives 
steadily  onward,  unmoved  by  the  antics  of  a  few  unbal- 
anced passengers.  But  in  1635  Massachusetts  was  a  little 
rowboat  on  an  angry  and  dangerous  sea.  The  wind  was 
boisterous,  and  the  billows  were  high,  and  the  men  who 
labored  with  desperate  energy  at  the  oars  were  in  doubt 
as  to  their  ability  to  reach  the  shore.  In  the  boat  there 
stood  this  obstreperous,  incorrigible  Welshman,  jumping 
up  and  down,  stamping  here  and  there,  threatening  to 
upset  the  little  vessel  and  toss  all  its  occupants  into  the 
waves.  The  men  who  were  rowing  said  to  the  Welsh- 
man, "  Sit  down."  He  would  not  do  it.  He  took  another 
jump.  Again  they  cried,  "  Sit  down."  Again  he  refused 
to  listen.  Finding  all  their  counsels  and  their  prayers  in 
vain,  they  told  him  he  must  get  into  another  boat  and 
allow  them  to  go  on  without  him.  In  saying  this  they 
may  have  acted  unwisely,  but  I  am  sure  they  were  not 
drunk. 

III.  Again  it  has  been  said  in  bitterness  and  indigna- 
tion: "  The  Puritans  persecuted  and  imprisoned  and  hung 
the  quiet  and  inoffensive  Quakers."  Two  words  in  this 
indictment  must  be  altered.  The  Quakers  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  with  whom  the  authorities  had  to  deal  were 
not,  as  a  rule,  either  quiet  or  inoffensive.  We  err  when  we 
think  that  the  Quakers,  as  we  know  them,  were  always 
in  all  points  what  they  are  today.  The  very  name  of 
Quaker  carries  to  us  the  atmosphere  of  gentleness  and 
peace.  The  word  calls  up  before  us  a  serene-browed  saint 
with  broad-brimmed  hat  and  coat  of  gray,  and  at  his  side 
a  motherly,  wholesome  woman  with  the  face  of  a  Ma- 
donna and  a  smile  which  has  in  it  a  benediction,  and  with 

[45] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

these  faces  before  us  we  grow  indignant  at  the  thought 
that  such  noble  specimens  of  humanity  should  have  been 
subjected  to  inhuman  treatment  at  the  hands  of  those 
who  claimed  to  be  servants  of  the  Most  High.  But  the 
Quakers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  they  appeared  to 
our  forefathers,  were  anything  but  angels  of  light  or  apostles 
of  peace.  While  they  refused  to  fight  with  the  sword,  they 
made  it  up  by  fighting  with  their  tongues.  Quakerism  had 
its  birth  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  like  many  another 
mighty  movement  it  gathered  in  the  earlier  stages  of  its 
course  a  great  mass  of  crude  and  ignorant  humanity 
whose  extravagances  and  eccentricities  shocked  those 
who  looked  on  and  hid  from  view  the  high  and  noble  prin- 
ciples which  the  movement  carried  in  its  bosom.  It  was 
fundamental  with  the  Quakers  that  a  man  must  be  guided 
by  the  "  inner  light."  The  one  sentence  of  Scripture  most 
highly  prized  by  them  was,  "  Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord 
is,  there  is  liberty."  As  every  Quaker  felt  himself  to  be  in 
possession  of  the  spirit  of  the  Lord,  he  was  free  to  indulge 
in  liberties  which  were  often  distressing  to  his  neighbors. 
This  doctrine  of  the  inner  light  was  feared  and  opposed  by 
all  branches  of  the  church  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  it  was  especially  abhorrent  to  the  Puritans,  who  be- 
lieved that  the  will  of  God  is  revealed  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  that  as  soon  as  men  leave  the  Scriptures  they  are  sure 
to  fall  victims  to  their  own  fancies  and  hallucinations. 
Surely  there  was  good  reason  for  this  fear.  Germany 
through  the  sixteenth  century  had  been  torn  and  cursed 
by  bodies  of  fanatics  who  claimed  to  be  following  the  inner 
light,  and  every  nation  had  been  visited  by  the  same 
terrible  and  incurable  plague.  To  the  Quakers  many  of 
the  essentials  of  the  Christian  church  were  an  abomination. 
They  did    not   believe   in   ministers.     They   called    them 

[46] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

seeds  of  the  serpent,  and  other  terms  equally  complimen- 
tary. They  had  no  use  for  prepared  sermons.  These 
were  to  them  man-made  devices  or  inventions  of  the 
devil.  They  kicked  over  the  communion  table  and  tossed 
baptism  behind  their  back.  They  stripped  Christianity 
naked,  and  reduced  the  church  to  the  movement  of  a 
spirit  in  the  heart  and  conscience  of  man.  After  the 
religious  training  of  fifteen  hundred  years,  such  revolu- 
tionary views  must  have  been  received  with  horror.  To 
make  matters  worse,  eccentric  individuals  did  queer  and 
outrageous  things,  confirming  the  suspicion  in  the  minds 
of  many  that  Quakers  were  in  league  with  hell.  Many 
zealous  souls  endeavored  to  imitate  the  example  of  Old 
Testament  prophets.  They  would  walk  through  the 
streets,  bawling  "  The  Lord  is  coming  with  sword  and 
fire."  They  would  go  barefoot,  and  wear  sackcloth  and 
put  ashes  on  their  heads.  Sometimes  they  would  blacken 
their  faces,  and  in  a  few  cases  they  dispensed  with  their 
clothes.  Religious  meetings  were  sometimes  disturbed  by 
them.  At  the  close  of  the  sermon  a  Quaker  would  rise 
and  overturn  all  the  preacher  had  attempted  to  establish. 
One  of  them  went  into  the  Old  South  Church  in  Boston 
one  Sunday  and  broke  two  bottles,  saying  to  the  minister 
as  he  did  it,  "Thus  shall  the  Lord  break  you."  Were 
any  one  to  act  thus  in  any  of  our  churches  to-day  he  would 
be  promptly  ejected.  If  he  came  back  he  would  be  arrested 
and  sent  to  jail.  If  he  persisted  in  his  foolishness  we  should 
put  him  in  an  asylum.  That  is  our  way  of  dealing  with 
people  who  act  altogether  from  the  "  inner  light."  But 
in  the  seventeenth  century  men  had  not  learned  the  trick 
of  taking  away  responsibility  by  the  plea  of  insanity.  It 
was  taken  for  granted  that  disturbers  of  the  peace  were 
in   their   right   mind   and   therefore  deserved   punishment 

[47] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

for  their  misdemeanors.  They  were  whipped,  imprisoned, 
branded,  mutilated,  and  if  incorrigible,  hung.  The  punish- 
ments of  the  seventeenth  century  w^ere  according  to  our 
standards  shockingly  severe.  But  the  laws  of  the  Puritans 
were  not  severer  than  the  laws  of  other  people.  The  laws 
of  Catholics  and  of  Lutherans  and  of  Anglicans  were 
fully  as  severe  as  those  of  the  Puritans.  There  is  no  dif- 
ference in  severity  between  the  laws  of  the  Cavaliers  of 
Virginia  and  the  laws  of  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts. 
Even  in  the  days  of  Blackstone,  late  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  there  were  one  hundred  and  sixty  crimes  punish- 
able by  death.  The  horrible  picture  of  Charles  Dickens 
in  "The  Tale  of  Two  Cities"  is  true  to  English  life  as  it 
existed  a  century  after  the  tragic  occurrences  in  New 
England. 

The  contest  between  the  Puritan  and  Quaker  would  be 
ludicrous  if  it  were  not  tragic.  When  Greek  meets  Greek 
then  comes  the  tug  of  war.  The  Puritan  had  a  conscience, 
so  had  the  Quaker.  The  Puritan  did  not  believe  in  bend- 
ing, neither  did  the  Quaker.  Both  men  were  inflexible 
as  granite,  and  when  they  met  a  conflict  was  inevitable. 
The  Puritan  told  the  Quaker  to  keep  out  of  Massachusetts, 
and  he  came  promptly  in.  As  soon  as  it  became  noised 
abroad  that  Quakers  were  not  wanted  in  Massachusetts, 
many  of  them  felt  divinely  impelled  to  hurry  thither  and 
bear  their  testimony  before  the  New  England  unbelievers. 
The  Puritan  flung  the  first  Quaker  invaders  from  his 
borders,  saying  "  Don't  come  back  !  If  you  do,  I'll  im- 
prison you."  And  the  Quaker,  led  by  the  inner  light, 
came  promptly  back  and  went  to  prison.  The  Puritan 
cast  him  out,  saying  "If  you  come  back  again  I'll  whip 
you."  The  Quaker  hurried  back  and  got  his  whipping. 
Again  the  Puritan  threw  him  out,  saying  "  If  you  return 

[48] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

I'll  cut  your  ear  off,"  and  the  Quaker,  with  great  alacrity, 
came  back  and  gave  up  his  ear.  At  last  the  Puritan,  en- 
raged beyond  endurance,  said  "  If  you  come  back  again, 
I'll  hang  you,"  and  the  Quaker  jubilantly  came  back  and 
got  hung.  The  Puritan  could  do  nothing  with  such  a  man. 
At  last  he  was  obliged  to  yield.  The  only  man  in  the 
seventeenth  century  who  was  able  to  conquer  the  Puritan 
was  the  Quaker. 

In  justice  it  ought  to  be  said  that  the  extreme  measures 
against  the  Quakers  did  not  have  the  sympathy  of  the 
people  of  Massachusetts.  The  law  prescribing  death  as 
the  penalty  for  the  third  offense  was  passed  only  after 
determined  opposition,  and  then  only  by  a  majority  of  one. 
There  would  have  been  no  majority  at  all  had  not  one  of 
the  deputies  been  sick  in  bed.  On  hearing  of  the  passage 
of  the  law  he  declared  that  rather  than  have  had  the  law 
pass  he  would  have  crawled  to  Boston  on  his  hands  and 
knees.  Those  responsible  for  the  law  felt  it  necessary 
to  apologize  for  it  and  hoped  it  would  not  be  necessary  to 
carry  it  into  effect.  When  the  time  came  for  the  first 
execution,  so  great  was  the  popular  indignation  that  soldiers 
were  scattered  through  the  town  to  suppress  a  possible 
insurrection.  Four  Quakers  lost  their  lives,  but  they  did 
not  die  in  vain.  They  battered  down  the  walls  of  Massa- 
chusetts exclusiveness  and  helped  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  coming  era  of  religious  liberty.  Probably  the  one  man 
most  responsible  for  the  hanging  of  the  Quakers  was  John 
Endicott.  An  official  does  not  always  represent  the  temper 
and  wishes  of  the  community  which  places  him  in  office. 
We  too  often  forget  that  there  were  various  types  of  Puri- 
tans. We  herd  them  all  together,  and  by  giving  them  a 
common  name  lose  sight  of  the  differences  which  dis- 
tinguish them  from  one  another.      Men  today  sometimes 

[49] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

speak  and  act  as  though  all  Democrats  were  alike,  and  yet 
Richard  Croker  is  a  Democrat  and  so  also  is  Grover  Cleve- 
land. There  are  those  who  deem  all  Catholics  alike,  and 
yet  Archbishop  Ireland  is  a  Catholic  and  so  also  was  the 
last  murderer  who  died  on  a  Western  gallows.  Michael 
Wigglesworth  and  John  Milton  were  both  Puritan  poets; 
one  wrote  doggerel,  the  other  wrote  one  of  the  five  greatest 
poems  ever  written.  Thomas  Dudley  was  a  Puritan,  so 
also  was  John  Winthrop.  John  Endicott  was  a  Puritan, 
so  also  was  John  Cotton.  John  Norton  was  a  Puritan,  so 
also  was  Thomas  Hooker.  William  Stoughton  was  a 
Puritan,  so  also  was  Samuel  Sewell,  the  man  who  had,  as 
Whittier  says, 

"  A  face  which  a  child  would  climb  to  kiss, 
True  and  tender  and  brave  and  just, 
Whom  man  might  honor  and  woman  trust." 

Because  four  Quakers  died  at  the  hands  of  the  court  of 
Massachusetts  it  does  not  follow  that  all  Puritans  were 
drunk  with  a  thirst  for  blood. 

IV.  But  did  not  New  England  Puritans  burn  witches? 
The  question  is  often  asked  in  a  tone  which  gives  an  affirm- 
ative answer.  There  are  men  who  speak  of  the  burning 
of  witches  in  New  England  as  though  it  had  been  for  a 
century  an  ordinary  and  almost  daily  occurrence.  The 
fact  is,  no  white  man  or  w^oman  was  ever  burned  for  belief 
or  deed  upon  the  soil  of  New  England.  Witches  w^ere 
burned  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  but  never  in  New 
England.  It  is  true  that  probably  thirty  persons,  between 
1620  and  1692,  lost  their  lives  in  Massachusetts  because 
accused  of  witchcraft,  but  this  is  not  a  stigma  on  Puritan- 
ism. Puritanism  had  nothing  to  do  w^ith  the  witchcraft 
tragedy.     Witches  lost  their  lives  in   New  England,   not 

[50] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

because  the  New  Englanders  were  Puritans,  but  because 
they  lived  in  the  seventeenth  century.  In  the  seventeenth 
century  everybody  believed  in  witchcraft.  That  the 
human  soul  can  be  taken  possession  of  by  infernal  spirits, 
and  used  to  bring  calamity  on  men's  lives  and  homes,  was 
one  of  the  axioms  of  belief.  Everybody  believed  this  — 
all  the  great  preachers  and  all  the  great  lawyers,  and  all  the 
great  scholars  and  all  the  great  reformers  on  both  sides  the 
sea.  Nearly  one  hundred  years  after  the  tragedy  at  Salem, 
William  Blackstone  treated  witchcraft  as  a  terrible  reality, 
and  John  Wesley  declared  that  if  men  gave  up  belief  in 
witchcraft  they  would  have  to  surrender  the  Bible.  Every- 
body in  the  seventeenth  century  believed  that  witches 
ought  to  be  punished.  The  unhappy  wretches  accused  of 
this  crime  were  dealt  with  by  a  heavy  hand  by  Catholics 
and  Lutherans  and  Anglicans,  and  men  of  every  class  and 
name.  The  historians  stagger  us  by  their  figures,  telling 
us  that  in  Germany  alone,  from  first  to  last,  one  hundred 
thousand  persons  were  put  to  death  on  the  charge  of  witch- 
craft, seventy-five  thousand  in  France,  thirty  thousand  in 
Scotland  and  England.  The  wonder  is  that  New  England 
escaped  with  thirty.  The  tragedy  came  to  an  end  in  New 
England  in  1692,  but  in  old  England  it  ran  on  to  1712, 
and  in  Scotland  to  1722.  The  delusion  in  Massachusetts 
was  confined  to  a  small  area,  and  shut  up  within  narrow 
limits  of  time.  Twenty  of  the  victims  lost  their  lives  in 
one  little  village,  and  all  within  six  months.  Some  lying 
children  began  to  cut  queer  capers,  and  gave  out  as  an  ex- 
planation of  their  behavior  that  they  had  been  bewitched 
by  certain  persons  whom  they  named.  These  persons 
were  tried  and  convicted,  and,  the  panic  increasing,  still 
others  were  suspected,  arraigned  and  executed.  Salem  for 
a  season  lost  its  head.  A  community  can  go  insane  as  truly 

[51] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

as  a  man  can.  Salem  was  crazy.  But  she  is  not  a  sinner 
above  all  others.  Even  London  on  a  well-known  occasion 
lost  its  head.  A  liar  named  Gates  told  a  great  tale  about 
a  certain  plot  of  the  Roman  Catholics  to  blow  up  the 
government  buildings  and  burn  the  shipping  on  the  Thames 
and  take  possession  of  London,  and  the  city  at  once  lost 
its  senses.  It  was  out  of  its  head  for  a  year.  Catholics 
were  dragged  to  prison,  a  few  of  them  were  hung,  a  law 
was  passed  shutting  all  Catholics  out  of  Parliament.  All 
sorts  of  wild  and  crazy  things  were  done  before  sanity  was 
restored.  New  York  has  more  than  once  lost  its  head.  A 
few  lying  women  once  caused  a  panic  here  by  starting  the 
story  that  the  negroes  were  going  to  burn  up  the  city  and 
take  possession  of  all  the  wealth  they  could  rescue  from 
its  ruins.  The  story  was  preposterous,  but  by  it  the  city 
was  panic-stricken.  Hundreds  of  negroes  were  seized, 
eleven  of  them  were  burned  at  the  stake,  twenty-two  were 
hung,  one  was  broken  on  the  wheel,  many  were  transported, 
and  the  sensible  people  of  Manhattan  acted  like  fools  and 
demons  until  they  recovered  from  their  fright.  Little 
Salem  suffered  from  just  such  a  frenzy.  The  paroxysm 
lasted  for  a  few  months  only,  and  when  men  got  cool  again 
they  repented  of  their  folly.  In  the  public  fast  day,  held 
four  years  later,  the  people  prayed  for  divine  forgiveness 
for  whatever  mistakes  they  had  fallen  into.  Judge  Sewell, 
one  of  the  judges  at  the  trials,  wrote  out  an  humble  con- 
fession and  plea  for  divine  forgiveness,  standing  in  his 
pew  in  the  Old  South  Church  while  the  minister  read  his 
confession  from  the  pulpit.  The  jurymen  likewise  made 
public  acknowledgment  of  their  error,  and  in  1711  pecu- 
niary compensation  to  the  heirs  of  the  victims  was  voted 
out  of  the  public  treasury.  And  so  of  all  the  communities 
which  under  the  witchcraft  delusion  have  been  guilty  of  the 

[52] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

shedding  of  blood,  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  is  the  only 
one  which  ever  repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  for  the 
great  evil  which  she  had  done. 

V.  But  they  say  the  Puritans  disliked  the  Episcopalians 
and  treated  them  most  rudely,  and  condemned  and  de- 
spised their  prayer-book.  All  of  which  must  be  acknowl- 
edged; and  should  you  ask  why  this  rudeness  and  dis- 
like, let  me  suggest  that  you  read  the  history  of  England 
and  Scotland  through  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. The  Puritans  had  received  no  mercy  at  the  hands 
of  the  English  church.  Archbishop  Laud,  and  others  like 
him,  had  made  it  impossible  for  thousands  of  loyal  Eng- 
lishmen to  live  in  England.  Driven  from  home,  deprived 
of  most  of  the  things  which  the  human  heart  holds  dear, 
by  men  who  were  determined  that  Christians  should  be 
ruled  by  Bishops,  and  that  God  should  be  worshipped  under 
forms  prescribed  by  the  King,  small  wonder  is  it  that  when 
these  persecutors  followed  the  exiles  across  the  sea  they 
should  be  given  but  scant  welcome  and  looked  upon  with 
aversion  and  fear.  They  remembered  the  fable  of  the  coney, 
which,  in  a  sentimental  mood,  allowed  a  hedgehog  to 
come  into  his  burrow,  only  to  be  crowded  out  by  the  hedge- 
hog when  the  latter  once  got  himself  established.  They 
could  not  forget  her  men  whom  Elizabeth  had  hung,  or 
the  scores  whom  Laud  had  fined  and  cast  into  prison;  nor 
were  they  ignorant  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Scotch  Presby- 
terians, who,  driven  from  their  churches,  were  arrested  as 
traitors  because  they  dared  to  worship  God  in  the  open 
fields.  How  can  a  man  look  with  complacency  on  a  foe 
who  has  hounded  him  out  of  his  home,  and  then  tracking 
him  across  an  ocean  persists  in  setting  up  the  symbols 
and  instruments  of  his  tyranny  under  the  front  window 
of  his  victim?     Having  endured  so  much  to  escape   the 

[53] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

bondage  of  a  tyrant  who  never  slept,  the  Puritan  would 
have  been  more  than  human  had  he  welcomed  the  incoming 
of  a  church  which  had  persecuted  his  fathers  and  made 
him  an  exile  in  a  strange  land.  And,  as  for  his  hatred  of 
the  prayer-book,  that,  too,  was  natural.  The  Puritans 
were  not  blind  to  the  literary  beauties  of  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  They  were  not  uncouth,  illiterate  barbarians, 
but  men  who  were  versed  in  the  world's  best  literature,  and 
whose  libraries  bear  witness  to  the  width  of  their  sym- 
pathies and  culture.  Why  then  did  they  hate  the  prayer- 
book?  Because  Church  and  State  officials  had  tried  their 
best  to  ram  it  down  their  throats.  Kings  and  Prelates  had 
said,  "  Take  this  book  and  with  this  book  approach  the 
throne  of  grace;  all  other  ways  are  by  law  forbidden." 
And  the  reply  was,  "  We  have  no  King  but  the  Lord  God 
Almighty.  Take  your  hands  off  of  our  conscience  !  "  And 
when  officials  persisted  in  thrusting  this  prayer-book  upon 
them,  our  fathers  trampled  the  book  under  their  feet,  to 
make  it  clear  to  the  world  that  no  man,  no  set  of  men,  be 
the  set  of  men  Parliament  or  General  Council,  be  the 
man  Pope  or  King,  has  a  right  to  dictate  to  a  soul  redeemed 
by  Christ  how  it  shall  approach  the  throne  of  God.  It  is 
sometimes  said  that  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans  have 
changed,  that  they  appreciate  and  prize  the  prayer-book, 
finding  in  it  solace  and  inspiration.  The  fact  is  we  have 
not  changed  at  the  core  of  our  being  one  iota.  Let  any 
civil  or  ecclesiastical  authority  bring  the  prayer-book  to 
us,  saying  "  This  is  the  book  which  you  shall  use.  These 
are  the  prayers  which  you  shall  pray,"  and  immediately 
we  will  tear  the  book  to  ribbons,  and  burn  the  ribbons  in 
the  fire.  Let  any  man  or  set  of  men  attempt  to  dictate  to 
us  our  form  of  worship,  and  at  once  the  Puritan  in  us  rises 
up  and  says,  "  By  the  Eternal  God,  no  !  "    In  resisting  the 

[54] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

Episcopacy  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Puritans  were 
not  drunk. 

VI.  But  surely  the  Puritans  were  narrow  and  morbid 
and  tyrannical,  else  they  could  never  have  passed  the 
"  Blue  Laws."  Which  Blue  Laws?  Men  often  speak  of 
the  Blue  Laws  of  New  England  as  though  they  were  a 
definite  and  well-known  historical  institution.  But  all  in- 
formed persons  know  that  the  most  famous  of  the  so- 
called  Blue  Laws  never  had  any  existence  outside  of  the 
ingenious  brain  of  that  notorious  liar,  the  Reverend  Samuel 
Peters,  who,  driven  out  of  this  country  during  the  Rev- 
olutionary War  because  of  his  Tory  sympathies  and  con- 
duct, took  revenge  upon  his  enemies  on  his  return  to 
England  by  publishing  a  pretended  code  of  laws  by  which 
the  new-world  Puritans  were  governed.  The  law  "  No 
woman  shall  kiss  her  child  on  the  Sabbath,"  and  the  law, 
'*  No  one  shall  play  on  any  instrument  of  music  except  the 
drum,  trumpet,  or  jew's-harp,"  have  been  taken  by  many 
innocent  and  gullible  people  as  features  of  actual  New 
England  legislation,  even  the  most  improbable  fabrica- 
tions of  a  slanderous  Tory  Munchausen  being  easily  be- 
lieved by  those  who  are  ready  to  think  evil  of  the  early 
settlers  of  New  England.  The  early  legislators  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  passed  many  quaint  and  curious 
laws;   but  they  were  never  drunk. 

VI L  It  is  a  charge  often  made  that  the  Puritans  were 
inconsistent;  that  whereas  they  came  to  America  osten- 
sibly to  found  a  refuge  where  every  one  might  enjoy  per- 
fect freedom  of  conscience,  yet  as  soon  as  they  got  the 
reins  of  power  in  their  own  hands  they  became  as  tyranni- 
cal and  exclusive  as  those  from  whom  they  had  suffered 
beyond  the  sea.  We  give  the  Puritans  too  much  credit 
when  we  claim  for  them  a  belief  in  full  liberty  of  conscience. 

[55] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Tolerance  as  we  know  it  now  did  not  exist  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  A  few  voices  pleaded  for  soul  liberty  but  the 
voices  were  few  and  far  apart.  The  Puritans  never  for  a 
moment  believed  that  a  man  has  a  right  to  do  as  he  pleases, 
nor  did  they  ever  profess  such  a  belief.  They  claimed  that 
God's  will  is  expressed  in  the  Bible,  and  that  to  that  will 
we  are  bound  to  conform  our  worship,  our  church  govern- 
ment and  our  life.  The  men  of  Massachusetts  set  up  a 
theocracy  after  the  fashion  of  the  theocracy  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  the  idea  that  men  should  be  left  free  to 
do  what  was  right  in  their  own  eyes,  that  never  once 
entered  their  mind.  They  blundered  in  attempting  to 
build  a  theocracy,  but  they  were  not  inconsistent.  They 
did  not  hold  our  views  of  tolerance,  but  they  were  not 
hypocrites.  In  fact  there  was  little  tolerance  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  sense  in  any  of  the  colonies.  The  Cavaliers 
of  Virginia  drove  out  the  New  England  preachers  who 
went  there,  and  three  hundred  Puritans  in  that  colony 
were  rendered  so  uncomfortable  they  were  obliged  to 
emigrate  into  Maryland.  The  toleration  of  Maryland 
has  been  often  eulogized,  and  every  now  and  then  some 
one  stands  up  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral  and  reminds  the 
faithful  that  while  the  Puritans  of  New  England  were 
persecutors.  Catholic  Maryland  set  a  shining  example  of 
the  spirit  of  toleration.  But  our  Roman  Catholic  friends 
always  fail  to  mention  the  fact  that  Lord  Baltimore  got 
his  charter  from  a  Protestant  King,  and  that  had  the 
liberties  of  Protestants  in  Maryland  been  interfered  with, 
the  charter  would  have  been  straightway  recalled.  They 
forget  also  to  state  that  wherever  in  the  seventeenth 
century  the  Catholics  were  in  supreme  power  they  perse- 
cuted the  Protestants  and  were  indifferent  to  their  rights. 
Even  the  reputation  of  Dutch  New  York  is  strained.    Berke- 

[56] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

ley  in  Virginia  and  Endicott  in  Massachusetts,  and  Stuy- 
vesant  in  New  York  were  all  more  narrow  and  severe  than 
the  masses  of  their  fellow-citizens.  Stuyvesant  drove  out 
the  Lutherans  and  the  Baptists  and  beat  a  poor  Quaker 
almost  to  death.  There  was  more  room  for  heretics  and 
dissenters  in  little  Rhode  Island  than  in  any  other  colony 
in  the  land.  But  even  Roger  Williams  came  to  believe  it 
to  be  right  to  punish  Quakers  if  their  foolishness  went 
too  far.  The  Puritans  did  not  know  how  far  liberty  might 
be  extended  without  detriment  to  Church  or  State.  They 
believed  that  the  line  must  be  drawn  somewhere,  and  so 
do  we.  When  the  Mormon  assures  us  that  his  conscience 
tells  him  he  ought  to  have  a  dozen  wives,  we  point  him  to 
the  law  and  say,  "It  is  a  wise  law,  obey  it  or  get  out." 
When  a  Christian  Scientist  says  that  her  conscience  will 
not  allow  her  to  call  a  doctor  when  her  child  has  diphtheria 
or  smallpox,  nor  will  it  allow  her  to  report  such  sickness  to 
the  Board  of  Health,  we  feel  that  the  woman  ought  to  be 
compelled  to  be  sensible,  and  that,  too,  by  law.  When  a 
man  claims  the  right  to  denounce  all  government  as  a 
curse,  and  persists  in  stirring  up  men  to  set  themselves 
against  all  magistrates  and  laws,  some  of  us  believe  it  to 
be  well  to  hang  up  a  placard,  "  No  admittance,"  and  tell 
the  professional  anarchist  to  pass  on  and  find  a  home  else- 
where. We  believe  in  drawing  the  line,  and  so  did  the 
Puritans  of  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago.  Of  course  they 
drew  the  line  far  inside  of  ours,  for  we  are  older  and  more 
experienced  and  have  with  audacious  faith  drawn  our  line 
far  out  and  dangerously  near  the  ragged  edge  of  license, 
but  even  if  we  in  the  twentieth  century  have  drawn  our 
line  far  beyond  the  reach  of  theirs,  it  does  not  follow  that 
for  their  day  and  generation  the  line  they  drew  was  wrong. 
At  any  rate  we  may  be  sure  they  were  not  drunk. 

[57] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

And  since  they  are  clothed  and  in  their  right  mind,  let 
us  get  as  close  to  them  as  we  can,  and  learn  from  them 
the  lessons  which  they  have  to  teach.  Their  dress  and 
fashions  may  amuse  us. 

"  The  old  three-cornered  hat, 
And  the  breeches,  and  all  that. 
Are  so  queer  !  " 

But  then  we  ourselves,  with  our  funny  tricks  of  dress, 
our  uncomfortable  and  latest  fashions,  will  look  queer 
and  antiquated  to  those  who  live  three  hundred  years  from 
now.  They  committed  blunders,  and  we  ourselves  keep 
blundering  right  along.  That  is  a  frailty  which  our  hu- 
manity does  not  readily  slough  off.  They  fumbled  their 
problems,  for  their  problems  were  complex  and  momen- 
tous, and  so  also  are  ours  and  we  are  fumbling,  too.  They 
made  mistakes  and  committed  sins  of  which  their  descend- 
ants are  ashamed,  and  who  dare  claim  that  in  our  record 
there  will  be  no  blot  to  bring  a  blush  to  the  cheeks  of  those 
who  come  after  us?  We  see  farther  than  they  saw  because 
we  are  standing  on  their  shoulders.  We  do  many  things 
better  than  they  did  then,  because  we  have  the  benefit  of 
more  than  two  centuries  of  experimentation  and  experi- 
ence. Our  eyes  are  no  keener  than  theirs,  but  we  have  the 
use  of  a  brighter  light. 

But  superior  though  we  are  in  some  things  to  those  who 
have  gone  before  us,  in  others  we  are  lacking  and  need  a 
strength  which  they  can  give.  These  Puritans  had  ideas 
whose  glory  has  not  faded.  They  had  beliefs  whose  per- 
petuation is  the  world's  salvation.  They  believed  in  moral- 
ity in  public  life  and  in  private  life,  they  believed  that 
only  the  pure  in  heart  shall  see  God.  They  believed  in 
education,  and  wherever  they  built  a  church  they  also  built 
a  school.     To  the  dream  of  giving  all  the  children  of  the 

[58] 


THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND 

State  an  education  they  gave  a  local  habitation  and  a 
name.  They  believed  in  the  home,  and  in  the  wilderness 
built  up  a  home  life  which  poets  love  to  picture  and  which 
will  remain  a  priceless  and  imperishable  possession.  They 
believed  in  liberty,  and  they  believed  in  it  more  and  more. 
When  the  time  came  to  break  the  chains  by  which  two 
worlds  were  bound,  Massachusetts  made  the  largest 
contribution  which  was  made.  And  above  all  else  they 
believed  in  God.  Plato  had  taught  the  doctrine  that  a 
man  ought  to  live  for  the  State.  Mediaeval  thinkers  had 
taught  that  man  ought  to  live  for  the  Church.  The  Tudors 
and  the  Stuarts  had  taught  that  man  ought  to  live  for  the 
king.  But  these  men  grasped  and  held  the  idea  that  a 
man  must  live  for  God.  Created  in  his  image,  the  heir  of 
immortality,  he  must  serve  him  on  the  earth  and  enjoy 
him  forever. 

Because  of  his  belief,  the  Puritan  was  able  to  do  great 
things.  He  brought  things  long  delayed  to  pass.  He 
ushered  in  new  eras.  He  laid  the  stepping-stones  over 
which  the  race  must  pass  in  order  to  reach  the  golden  age. 
He  founded  a  commonwealth  which  became  the  corner- 
stone of  the  New  England  Confederacy,  and  this  Con- 
federacy became  in  time  the  corner-stone  of  a  republic 
which,  please  God,  shall  be  a  blessing  to  all  coming  nations 
and  ages.  The  Puritans  are  dead,  but  though  dead  they 
yet  speak.  They  have  ceased  from  their  labors  but  their 
works  follow  with  them.  If  you  would  see  their  monu- 
ment, look  round  you! 


[59] 


IV 

THE    PLACE    OF    THE    PURITAN    IN    HISTORY^ 

"/  heard  behind  me  a  great  voice  as  of  a  trumpet.'^  —  Rev.  1  :  10. 

It  was  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  the  prisoner  on 
Patmos  was  in  the  spirit  of  the  day.  His  ears  were  open 
to  the  things  which  a  man  ought  to  hear,  and  suddenly 
he  heard  behind  him  a  great  voice  as  of  a  trumpet.  He 
turned  and  looked,  and  beheld  a  sight  which  subdued  him 
and  brought  from  his  heart  a  song  of  thanksgiving  and 
praise.  It  is  not  my  purpose  this  morning  to  inquire  who 
it  was  that  he  saw,  or  what  the  person  behind  him  said;  I 
simply  use  his  attitude  as  a  suggestion  to  you,  and  my 
first  question  this  morning  is:  Do  you  ever  hear  a  voice 
like  the  voice  of  a  trumpet  behind  you?  It  may  be  you 
do  not.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  the  voice  behind  us  to  be 
drowned  out  by  the  voices  around  us.  We  are  living  in  an 
age  of  voices,  multitudinous,  myriad-toned  voices,  loud, 
shrill  and  discordant  voices,  soft,  musical  and  appealing 
voices,  jangling,  scolding,  shrieking  voices,  tender,  pleading, 
thrilling  voices  —  they  roll  in  over  us  like  a  flood ;  no  other 
generation  has  ever  heard  so  many  voices.  The  world 
has  become  a  whispering  gallery,  every  whisper  reverber- 
ates around  the  world.  The  printing  press  is  like  a  phono- 
graph and  catches  all  the  vibrations,  and  we  set  up  a 
phonograph  on  the  breakfast  table,  and  we  hear  the  voices 
of  the  passing  days.  And  right  there  lies  a  danger.  We 
may  listen  too  attentively  to  the  voices  of  the  present,  we 
may  become  submerged  in  the  voices  of  the  now  and  be- 

1  Dec.  1906. 

[6o] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

come  deaf  to  the  voice  that  speaks  to  us  out  of  the 
past. 

Think  what  lies  behind  us:  sixty  generations  of  men 
between  us  and  Jesus,  sixty  other  generations  between 
Jesus  and  Abraham.  How  many  generations  between 
Abraham  and  the  first  man  who  ever  Hfted  his  eyes  toward 
God,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  And  all  those  generations  being 
dead,  yet  speak.  They  lived  and  toiled  and  suffered,  they 
stamped  the  impress  of  their  energy  upon  the  earth  before 
they  left  it.  They  created  forces  which  have  been  working 
to  the  present  hour.  Because  they  were  what  they  were, 
we  are  what  we  are.  They  have  ceased  from  their  labors, 
but  their  works  follow  after  them.  Their  struggles,  blun- 
derings,  anxieties,  sinkings  of  heart,  agonies  are  all 
ended,  but  the  effects  of  their  activity  are  alive  in  the 
world  which  is  our  home. 

And  it  is  a  great  privilege  on  the  Lord's  day,  when 
wearied  and  fretted  by  the  jangling  voices  of  the  present, 
to  listen  for  the  voice  that  speaks  like  a  trumpet  to  us  out 
of  the  caves  of  the  years  that  have  vanished  and  out  of 
the  sepulchres  of  the  immortal  dead.  It  was  a  great 
utterance  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  which  he  spoke  in  Egypt 
to  his  soldiers:  "  Forty  centuries  look  down  on  you." 
He  braced  the  heart  of  every  man  in  his  army  by  telling 
him  to  listen  to  the  voice  that  spoke  behind  him.  Would 
we  not  all  be  stronger  and  saner  and  wiser  than  we  are  if 
we  did  our  work  conscious  of  the  men  into  whose  inheri- 
tance we  have  entered? 

Every  year  at  this  season  of  December  I  try  to  help 
you  hear  a  voice  out  of  the  past.  This  is  the  week  that 
holds  in  it  the  day  that  commemorates  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock.  I  never  allow  the  week  to 
pass  without  asking  you  to  think  of  some  phase  of  the 

[6i] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

mighty  movement  of  which  the  Mayflower  was  a  part,  and 
without  calHng  your  attention  to  that  company  of  broad- 
shouldered  servants  of  the  Lord  of  which  the  Pilgrims 
were  shining  representatives.  The  Puritan  is  a  man  of 
exhaustless  interest.  Sometimes  we  have  thought  about 
his  virtues,  at  other  times  we  have  thought  about  his 
limitations,  we  have  studied  his  contribution  to  religion, 
to  education,  to  the  life  of  the  home,  and  now  this  morning 
let  us  think  about  his  contribution  to  the  cause  of  civil 
liberty. 

In  Pilgrim  Hall,  in  the  old  town  of  Plymouth,  Mass., 
there  is  a  painting  which  many  of  you  have  already  seen, 
and  before  which  I  wish  that  every  American  citizen  might 
stand  for  at  least  an  hour.  The  title  of  the  picture  is: 
"  The  Signing  of  the  Compact  in  the  Cabin  of  the  May- 
flower.''' The  picture  represents  one  of  the  most  thrilling 
events  in  the  history  of  the  human  race.  It  was  on  the 
9th  of  November,  1620,  that  these  Pilgrims  came  in  sight 
of  land.  For  sixty-four  days  they  had  been  out  upon  a 
shoreless  deep,  cooped  up  in  the  little  Mayflower.  And 
now  on  the  morning  of  November  9th  their  eyes  look  out 
upon  the  land.  A  miserable  sort  of  land  it  is,  —  only  the 
sand  hills  of  Cape  Cod  and  patches  of  scrubby  woods  — 
but  to  the  hungry  eyes  of  the  Pilgrims  even  this  land  was 
paradise.  The  winds  had  blown  them  from  their  course,  so 
that  instead  of  landing  somewhere  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson,  as  they  had  hoped,  they  had  come  out  several 
hundred  miles  to  the  north.  Turning  the  prow  of  their 
little  vessel  toward  the  south,  they  determined  to  make 
the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  but  God  threw  a  storm  across 
their  path  and  they  were  driven  back  into  Cape  Cod  Bay. 
This  was  on  November  10th.  On  the  following  day,  re- 
alizing that  they  were  soon  to  land,  and  that  men  on  this 

[62] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

earth  cannot  live  together  well  without  a  government,  a 
compact  was  drawn  up  embodying  an  agreement  to  form 
a  State.  The  compact  began  thus:  "  In  the  name  of  God, 
Amen,"  and  then  it  went  on  to  say  that  the  men  whose 
names  were  written  below  had  undertaken  to  form  a  body 
politic  for  the  purpose  of  enacting  such  just  and  equal  laws 
as  should  be  found  meet  and  convenient  for  the  general 
welfare.  The  first  man  to  sign  his  name  was  John  Carver, 
then  came  William  Bradford,  then  Edward  Winslow,  then 
William  Brewster,  then  Isaac  AUerton,  then  Miles  Stan- 
dish,  followed  by  thirty- five  others  whose  names  the  world 
will  never  allow  to  die. 

That  was  in  1620;  fourteen  years  later  the  men  of  Massa- 
chusetts colony  were  casting  secret  written  ballots  for  a 
Governor,  and  five  years  after  that  the  freemen  of  Con- 
necticut gathered  at  Hartford  and  adopted  the  first  written 
constitution  known  to  human  history  which  created  a 
government.  In  1776  Thomas  Jefferson  was  drafting  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in  1906  there  stood  upon 
the  American  continent  a  republic  with  windows  looking 
out  upon  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  its  flag  waving  over 
the  heads  of  millions  of  freemen  determined  under  God 
that  government  of  the  people  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people  shall  never  perish  from  the  earth.  And  how  did  it 
all  come  about?  So  great  a  phenomenon  must  have  an 
explanation.  One  explanation  is  that  the  dominant  ideas 
of  the  American  republic  came  from  the  heads  of  the 
French  philosophers  who  lived  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
18th  century.  According  to  this  idea  it  was  Rousseau  and 
Voltaire  and  the  encyclopaedists  who  gave  birth  to  the 
ideas  upon  which  the  republic  has  been  built,  and  plausi- 
bility has  been  given  to  this  explanation  from  the  fact  that 
Thomas  Jefferson,  the  writer  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 

[63] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

pendence,  was  imbued  with  the  ideas  of  the  French  philoso- 
phers and  got  much  of  his  inspiration  from  that  quarter. 
But  he  does  not  look  far  enough  who  sees  in  the  French 
history  of  the  last  part  of  the  18th  century  the  beginning 
of  the  American  repubhc.  Back  of  Rousseau  and  Voltaire 
a  man  with  eyes  can  see  John  Locke  and  John  Milton,  and 
back  of  John  Milton  can  be  seen  the  faces  of  John  Knox 
and  John  Calvin.  Rousseau  and  Voltaire  and  their  con- 
temporaries may  have  helped  to  light  the  fire  which  is 
warming  the  modern  world,  but  they  kindled  their  own  torch 
at  the  hearts  of  men  who  were  in  their  graves  when  these 
Frenchmen  were  born.  You  never  can  account  for  the 
American  republic  by  tracing  it  to  French  infidelity. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  the  republic  can  be 
largely  accounted  for  by  its  environment.  "  It  is  the  prod- 
uct of  a  new  world,  such  a  thing  would  have  been  impossible 
in  any  other  land  than  America,  it  grew  up  spontaneously, 
it  came  out  of  the  unfettered  heart  of  man,  the  exigencies 
of  the  time  demanded  it,  the  circumstances  of  the  age 
compelled  it.  In  America  there  were  no  entangling  tradi- 
tions, no  institutions  to  oppress  and  retard.  And  because 
the  heart  was  free  from  ancient  ideas  and  all  social  and  po- 
litical conditions  elastic,  the  American  republic  arose  as  a 
plant  arises  out  of  a  soil  which  the  rains  of  heaven  have 
watered."  It  is  a  plausible  theory,  but  will  hardly  stand 
examination.  If  the  American  republic  was  the  product 
either  of  the  air  or  the  soil,  how  does  it  happen  that  no 
beginning  was  made  until  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plym- 
outh? The  Pilgrims  were  not  the  first  men  who  arrived 
on  these  coasts.  America  had  been  discovered  more  than 
a  century  and  a  quarter  before  the  Pilgrims  sailed.  For  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five  years  men  had  been  crossing  the 
Atlantic,  planting  their  settlements  in  different  parts  of 

[64] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

the  land.  The  Spanish  had  roamed  over  the  country  from 
Florida  to  California,  the  Frenchmen  had  made  explora- 
tions from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  yet  in  all  of  the  land  which  the  Spanish 
and  the  Frenchmen  had  settled  there  was  not  an  institu- 
tion different  from  that  which  was  to  be  found  in  the  old 
world,  nor  even  a  dream  of  a  republic  under  which  men 
should  be  free.  The  spirit  of  liberty  did  not  come  out  of 
the  soil,  nor  did  it  come  out  of  the  air. 

Nor  was  the  spirit  of  liberty  peculiar  to  the  new  world. 
Samuel  Adams  and  Patrick  Henry  in  the  18th  century 
stand  up  and  defy  George  III,  but  they  were  not  original 
in  doing  that.  In  the  17th  century  had  not  Oliver  Crom- 
well stood  up  against  Charles  I,  and  even  dared  to  cut  off 
his  head?  And  in  the  16th  century  did  not  John  Knox  re- 
sist Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  face  to  face  and  tell  her  without 
wincing  that  subjects  had  a  right  to  resist  their  rulers  when 
their  rulers  commanded  that  which  was  wrong?  And  had 
not  Andrew  Melville  told  James  VI  that  he  was  not  the 
head  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  simply  a  member  of 
it?  And  across  the  English  channel  had  not  the  Hugue- 
not Coligni  stood  up  against  Charles  IX?  and  in  the 
Netherlands  had  not  William  the  Silent  defied  the  rage 
of  Philip  II  and  all  the  generals  which  Philip  II  had  sent 
into  the  field?  The  same  sort  of  liberty  which  we  find  in 
America  in  the  18th  century  existed  in  England  in  the  17th, 
and  was  found  in  Holland  in  the  16th.  It  was  not  born 
of  the  air,  neither  did  it  come  out  of  the  soil.  The  people 
of  America  and  Scotland  and  England  and  France  and 
Holland  and  Switzerland  had  all  drunk  deep  of  the  same 
fountain,  and  it  is  my  purpose  this  morning  to  ascertain 
just  what  that  fountain  was. 

For  the  last  four  hundred  years  there  have  been  two 

[65] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

ideas  struggling  for  the  supremacy  of  the  world:  the  idea 
of  despotism  and  the  idea  of  liberty,  the  Roman  idea  and 
the  Teutonic  idea.  According  to  the  Roman  idea,  supreme 
power  is  vested  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men  at  the  top,  and 
this  power  is  delegated  to  the  men  who  stand  below.  That 
was  the  dominant  idea  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Upon  that 
idea  the  Caesars  built  their  throne.  They  never  admitted 
the  principle  of  representation.  The  idea  was  unknown  to 
the  mind  of  the  Roman  statesman.  When  Christianity 
found  its  way  to  the  city  of  the  Caesars,  it  lived  at  fiist  in 
cellars  and  alleys,  but  with  the  conversion  of  Constantine 
it  walked  up  the  steps  and  sat  down  on  the  imperial  throne, 
and  on  the  day  of  its  coronation  in  the  Roman  capital  it 
was  stamped  with  the  impress  of  the  Roman  idea  and 
passed  into  the  spirit  of  the  Caesars.  The  Pope  himself 
became  a  Caesar,  and  round  him  was  a  group  of  councilors, 
and  in  the  hands  of  Pope  and  councilors  the  supreme  power 
of  the  Church  of  God  was  placed.  The  history  of  the 
mediaeval  ages  is  simply  the  history  of  the  working  out  of 
that  idea.  The  Pope  became  the  monarch  of  the  world, 
kings  and  potentates  were  subject  unto  him.  He  lorded 
it  over  parliaments  and  council  chambers.  He  created 
and  deposed  kings  at  will,  statesmen  were  glad  to  do  his 
bidding.  When  Columbus  announced  he  had  discovered 
a  new  world,  the  Pope  who  then  sat  in  St.  Peter's  chair 
calmly  divided  the  new  world  into  two  parts,  giving  one 
part  to  the  King  of  Spain,  the  other  to  the  King  of  Portu- 
gal. In  such  a  lordly  manner  did  the  Bishop  of  Rome  deal 
with  the  treasures  of  this  world.  And  not  only  did  he  lord  it 
over  the  earthly  treasures  of  men,  but  he  lorded  it  over  the 
mind.  He  and  his  councilors  determined  what  men  should 
think,  what  they  should  read  and  what  they  should  write, 
and  not  content  with  assuming  mastership  over  the  things 

[66] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

of  this  world,  he  laid  his  hand  upon  the  heavens  and  claimed 
to  be  possessor  of  that.  He  held  in  his  grip  the  keys  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  the  kingdom  of  purgatory.  He 
could  shut  men  out  of  heaven,  he  could  lift  men  out  of 
purgatory,  surpassing  in  the  sweep  of  his  power  and  th^ 
pride  of  his  autocracy  the  boldest  and  loftiest  of  the 
Caesars. 

Of  course  there  was  a  protest  to  all  this.  Not  a  century 
passed  without  a  cry  of  opposition  from  some  heart  some- 
where in  love  with  liberty.  In  the  13th  century  there  was 
a  furious  outcry  in  France  from  people  known  as  Albi- 
genses,  but  the  revolt  was  trampled  out  in  blood.  For 
forty  years  the  slaughter  was  continued,  until  almost  the 
name  of  Albigenses  was  obliterated  from  the  earth.  In 
the  14th  century  there  was  another  protest,  louder  still 
and  more  thrilling.  In  the  15th  century  the  notes  of 
opposition  rose  clearer  still,  but  still  the  power  of  Rome 
remained  unbroken.  But  in  the  16th  century  the  fulness 
of  the  times  had  come,  the  load  of  misery  had  reached  its 
limit,  tyranny  had  done  its  deadliest  work,  and  when 
Martin  Luther  nailed  his  Theses  to  the  old  church  door  in 
Wittenberg,  the  nation  rose  to  its  feet.  Modern  history 
began  with  Martin  Luther.  It  was  a  German  who  struck 
the  decisive  blow,  but  the  blow  awakened  echoes  in  the 
hearts  of  men  everywhere.  England  soon  burst  into  a 
blaze.  She  tore  herself  loose  from  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 
Henry  VIII  became  head  of  the  nation  and  head  of  the 
Church.  But  Henry  VIII  had  the  Roman  idea.  He  ac- 
cepted the  theory  that  supreme  power  lies  in  the  hands  of 
a  few  men  at  the  top,  and  that  all  power  is  delegated  to  the 
men  who  stand  below.  That  was  the  theory  of  all  the 
Tudors  and  all  the  Stuarts.  The  Tudors  and  the  Stuarts 
not  only  had  the  Roman  idea  but  they  had  the  Roman 

[67] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

temper.  They  were  lordly,  domineering,  unendurable. 
They  claimed  the  right  to  dictate  to  men  what  ministers 
they  should  have,  how  they  should  worship,  what  they 
should  believe.  And  little  by  little  there  grew  in  the  hearts 
of  Englishmen  a  conviction  that  kings  have  no  divine 
right  to  govern  wrong,  and  that  under  God  men  should 
be  free.  Up  to  this  time  kings  had  insisted  upon  the  right 
to  dictate  to  congregations  who  their  ministers  should  be, 
but  now  the  question  arises,  who  gave  the  kings  of  the  earth 
authority  to  decide  who  shall  be  the  preachers  in  the  Church 
of  Christ?  Kings  had  insisted  upon  the  privilege  of  deter- 
mining what  should  be  the  ceremonies  and  the  order  of 
worship,  but  now  the  question  comes,  who  gave  kings 
authority  to  dictate  to  the  followers  of  Jesus  in  what  man- 
ner they  should  approach  the  throne  of  God?  Up  to  this 
time  men  had  not  been  thinking  about  the  State  at  all, 
they  were  thinking  about  the  Church  of  Christ.  They 
were  asking  themselves  the  measure  of  the  liberty  which 
Christ  had  given  to  his  followers.  It  was  a  long  and  tre- 
mendous battle,  but  step  by  step  they  fought  their  way 
onward,  winning  their  right  to  name  their  own  ministers, 
framing  their  own  church  laws  and  formulating  their  own 
order  of  worship.  First  there  came  the  vision  of  the  King 
high  and  lifted  up.  The  vision  of  his  majesty  blurred  the 
glory  of  all  earthly  kings.  In  the  presence  of  the  Eternal 
all  the  potentates  of  the  earth  were  only  puppets,  and  in 
the  light  of  eternal  justice  their  usurpations  became  un- 
endurable. 

If  every  man  has  a  right  to  enter  the  Holy  of  holies  and 
commune  directly  with  the  King,  then  every  man  has 
a  right  to  cast  a  vote  in  the  choice  of  his  minister,  and  to 
every  man  the  privilege  is  granted  of  helping  to  shape  the 
policy  and  program  of  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  member. 

[68] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

But  in  order  to  perform  these  duties  well  he  must  have 
an  education,  and  so  the  common  school  arrived.  Where- 
ever  the  Puritans  went  they  built  two  buildings,  the 
church  and  the  schoolhouse,  from  which  twin  fountains 
the  rivers  have  proceeded  which  have  made  glad  the  earth. 
Wherever  this  vision  of  the  King  eternal  was  the  most 
vivid,  there  did  schoolhouses  most  abound,  and  there 
were  men  the  bravest  in  the  declaration  of  their  rights. 
There  were  Puritans  of  course  in  every  one  of  the  thirteen 
colonies:  Dutch  Puritans  in  New  York,  Scotch-Irish 
Puritans  in  Pennsylvania,  French  Puritans  in  the  Caro- 
linas,  English  Puritans  in  New  England.  We  are  not  true 
to  history  when  we  ascribe  all  the  glory  to  the  Puritans 
which  came  from  England.  Scotchmen  were  true  to  the 
sacred  cause,  and  so  were  Hollanders  and  Frenchmen  and 
Germans.  Out  of  the  veins  of  the  five  different  nationalities 
came  the  blood  which  watered  the  sacred  plant  of  free- 
dom. But  in  boldness  of  aggression  and  in  fiery  energy  of 
conviction,  no  Puritans  surpassed  the  Puritans  of  New 
England.  It  is  significant  that  Massachusetts  alone  sent 
more  soldiers  into  the  continental  army  which  fought  the 
battles  of  the  Revolution  than  all  the  six  southern  states 
combined.  And  this  becomes  all  the  more  remarkable 
when  one  remembers  that  the  population  of  Virginia  alone 
was  as  great  as  that  of  Massachusetts,  and  this  is  also 
noteworthy,  that  a  large  proportion  of  all  the  soldiers  who 
came  from  the  south  were  Scotch-Irish.  These  Scotch 
Irishmen  bore  upon  their  hearts  the  stamp  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well and  his  Ironsides.  Wherever  they  went  they  carried 
with  them  a  flaming  hatred  against  tyranny,  an  unquench- 
able love  for  freedom.  During  the  Revolutionary  period 
more  than  half  of  all  the  Governors  outside  of  New  England 
were  Scotch   Irishmen,  and  of  the  men  who  signed  the 

[691 


FOREFATHERS^  DAY  SERMONS 

Declaration  of  Independence  one  quarter  of  them  were 
either  Scotchmen,  Irishmen  or  Scotch  Irishmen.  Patrick 
Henry,  the  man  whom  Thomas  Jefferson  always  acknowl- 
edged as  the  leader  of  the  liberty  party  in  the  south,  and 
who  by  his  eloquent  voice  had  silenced  the  voices  of  his 
aristocratic  party,  was  himself  the  son  of  a  Scotchman. 
Of  course  there  were  many  men  who  threw  their  fortune 
and  their  energy  into  that  tremendous  contest  who  were 
neither  Puritans  nor  the  sons  of  Puritans,  but  impartial 
history  declares  that  the  men  who  bore  the  bulk  of  the 
burdens  in  the  heat  of  the  day  were  the  men  who  traced 
their  lineage  back  to  the  men  who  had  fought  the  battles 
of  freedom  in  the  Old  World. 

Here  then  is  a  point  never  to  be  forgotten,  that  political 
liberty  is  the  child  of  religion.  The  American  Revolution 
was  possible  because  of  the  political  revolution  of  the  17th 
century,  and  the  political  revolution  of  the  17th  century 
was  possible  because  of  the  religious  revolution  of  the 
16th.  The  reason  New  England  Pilgrims  made  the  town 
meeting  the  corner-stone  of  their  state  was  because  already 
in  the  old  world  they  had  conceived  of  a  church  as  a  de- 
mocracy in  which  all  men  were  free  in  the  Lord.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  men  fell  at  once  to  voting  for  their  Gover- 
nors when  they  had  already  learned  to  vote  for  their 
ministers.  Six  years  before  the  men  of  Massachusetts 
colony  voted  for  their  Governors,  Christian  men  in  Salem 
had  voted  for  the  ministers  of  the  Salem  church.  It  never 
became  clear  to  men  that  the  common  people  have  a  right 
to  curb  and  direct  the  power  of  kings  in  the  State  until 
they  had  grasped  the  conception  that  it  is  within  the  prov- 
ince of  the  people  to  manage  their  own  affairs  in  the  Church 
of  the  Son  of  God.  There  was  no  democracy  in  the  State 
until  there  was  democracy  in  the  Church,  and  there  was 

[70] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

no  democracy  in  the  Church  until  the  great  vision  of  the 
Eternal. 

I  have  spoken  thus  far  of  the  conflict  between  the  Roman 
and  the  Teutonic  idea  as  though  the  victory  had  been  long 
ago  achieved,  and  so  it  is  in  the  English-speaking  world, 
but  the  age-long  conflict  still  goes  on  in  all  countries  over 
which  the  Roman  Catholic  church  exercises  lordship.  We 
cannot  understand  current  history  until  we  understand  the 
nature  of  this  conflict  and  the  causes  of  it.  For  several 
years  an  effort  has  been  made  among  the  members  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  to  secure  another  American  Cardi- 
nal. There  are  at  least  eight  million  Roman  Catholics  in 
the  United  States,  and  yet  these  are  represented  in  the 
sacred  college  by  a  single  Cardinal.  In  the  sacred  college 
as  it  exists  to-day  there  are  52  Cardinals,  thirty-one  of 
whom  are  Italians,  Spain  has  five,  and  Austro-Hungary 
has  five,  Germany  has  three,  the  United  States  one,  and 
Great  Britain  none  at  all.  It  seems  quite  surprising  to  our 
western  eyes  that  Italy,  a  third-rate  nation,  should  have 
thirty-one  representatives  in  the  body  of  men  to  whom 
supreme  power  is  granted  over  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
that  five  Cardinals  should  be  given  to  Spain,  a  decadent 
nation,  and  to  Austro-Hungary,  a  second-rate  nation,  while 
this  great  republic  of  the  West  has  but  a  single  vote,  and 
Great  Britain,  the  mightiest  empire  on  the  earth,  has  no 
vote  at  all.  It  is  all  wrong  from  the  American  standpoint 
because  we  believe  in  the  Teutonic  or  representative  princi- 
ple, but  from  the  Roman  standpoint  it  is  entirely  right. 
The  representative  principle  has  no  place  in  Roman  Catho- 
lic government.  The  men  who  belong  to  the  sacred  college 
say  very  distinctly  and  very  boldly  that  no  other  nation 
outside  of  Italy  has  any  claim  whatsoever  to  a  place  in 
that  august  body.     Everything  that  is  granted  to  any 

[71] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

other  nation  is  granted  not  as  a  right  but  as  a  matter  of 
grace  and  favor.  American  Catholics  have  one  Cardinal 
not  because  they  have  a  right  to  have  one  but  simply  be- 
cause of  the  good  nature  of  the  Italians  who  sit  on  thrones 
in  the  city  of  Rome,  and  if  the  Roman  Catholic  church  in 
America  should  swell  to  fifty  millions,  and  if  it  should 
possess  the  greater  part  of  the  wealth  and  piety  of  the 
world,  still  it  would  have  no  legitimate  claim  to  representa- 
tion in  the  sacred  college.  But  should  the  Italians  so 
decree  it,  all  these  fifty  millions  would  be  obliged  to  remain 
dumb  in  the  high  council  chambers  of  the  church.  That 
is  Roman  Catholic  government  according  to  the  exposition 
of  the  very  highest  authorities  in  that  church.  The  Ro- 
man Catholic  hierarchy  is  always  priding  itself  on  the 
fact  that  the  church  never  changes.  It  has  indeed  changed 
on  a  hundred  points,  but  never  has  it  changed  in  its  idea 
of  despotic  government  in  the  church. 

The  papers  nowadays  are  filled  with  the  tremendous 
commotion  that  is  sweeping  over  France.  A  year  ago  the 
French  government  cut  the  bonds  that  had  bound  State 
and  Church  together,  and  just  now  the  condition  of  affairs 
is  more  alarming  than  it  has  been  for  many  years.  What 
is  the  matter  with  France?  It  is  torn  asunder  by  this 
mighty  conflict  between  the  Roman  and  the  Teutonic 
ideas.  The  conflict  has  been  longer  working  itself  out  in 
France  than  in  Germany,  Holland,  England  or  America, 
because  France  since  the  16th  century  has  been  devoid  of 
a  body  of  Puritans.  It  was  in  the  13th  century  that  the 
Albigenses  uttered  their  protest,  but  they  were  ruthlessly 
slaughtered,  and  not  until  the  16th  century  did  another 
body  of  French  Puritans,  the  Huguenots,  arrive.  They 
were  met  with  the  same  implacable  hatred  and  the  same 
incredible   cruelty,    the   persecution    culminating   in    that 

I  72] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

awful  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's,  whose  horrid  butch- 
ery is  still  red  before  the  eyes  of  the  world.  In  the  16th  cen- 
tury, one  seventh  —  the  best  seventh  of  the  population  of 
France  —  was  driven  into  exile,  and  from  that  time  until 
this,  France  has  had  no  Puritans.  Through  all  this  period 
the  Roman  church  has  perpetrated  her  usurpations,  until 
some  twenty-five  years  ago  the  movement  began  which 
has  recently  culminated  in  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State.  Cardinal  Gibbons  has  recently  issued  an  appeal 
to  the  American  people  begging  them  to  sympathize  with 
the  poor  Catholics  in  France.  His  paper  is  plausible  and 
also  sophistical.  What  he  says  is  true,  but  he  leaves  too 
many  things  unsaid.  He  dwells  upon  the  fact  that  many 
of  the  French  statesmen  and  ministers  are  infidels,  that 
they  hate  not  only  the  Roman  Catholic  church  but  religion 
itself,  and  even  the  name  of  Jesus.  He  quotes  one  of  the 
ministers  as  having  recently  said  that  they  had  hunted  the 
name  of  Jesus  out  of  the  schools,  out  of  the  asylums,  out 
of  the  army,  and  that  they  now  must  hunt  the  name  out 
of  the  kingdom  altogether.  But  the  question  arises,  why 
do  French  ministers  talk  after  that  fashion?  How  does  it 
happen  that  the  French  government  is  so  bitter  against 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church?  It  can  be  accounted  for  in 
precisely  the  same  way  in  which  you  can  account  for 
Voltaire  and  the  French  Revolution  of  the  18th  century. 
Why  did  Voltaire,  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  Frenchmen, 
declare  that  the  name  of  Jesus  was  infamous?  It  was 
because  all  the  Christianity  that  he  had  anything  to  do 
with  was  execrable.  The  church  in  his  day  was  rotten, 
many  of  its  ministers' were  vile.  It  was  an  engine  of  despot- 
ism forging  fetters  for  the  mind  of  man,  and  he  hated  the 
church  with  all  the  hot  indignation  of  his  great  soul.  That 
is  the  explanation  of  the  opposition  of  the  leading  French- 

[73] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

men  today.  They  have  come  to  detest  religion  because 
the  only  religion  they  know  anything  about  is  the  religion 
of  Roman  Catholicism  —  and  with  that  they  are  dis- 
gusted. What  Cardinal  Gibbons  says  is  true,  but  he  forgot 
to  tell  us  about  the  long  series  of  intrigues  and  schemes  and 
underhanded  projects  hatched  in  the  fertile  brains  of  the 
Roman  politicians,  extending  through  the  last  half  of  the 
century.  The  whole  nefarious  business  culminated  not 
long  ago  in  the  reprimand  which  the  Vatican  gave  to  the 
President  of  the  French  republic  because  he  dared  on  a 
visit  to  Italy  to  call  upon  the  King  of  that  country.  Is 
it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  blood  of  Frenchmen  ran  hot 
when  that  awful  outrage  was  perpetrated?  The  Pope  sup- 
posed he  was  living  in  the  16th  century  and  forgot  he  was 
living  in  the  20th.  Suppose  that  the  Pope  should  attempt 
to  reprimand  our  President  for  any  act  whatsoever,  the 
country  would  at  once  burst  into  a  blaze.  He  dare  not  do 
it.  His  advisers  dare  not  do  it.  But  they  do  just  such 
things  in  every  country  in  which  they  have  the  power. 
But  in  speaking  of  Roman  Catholicism  as  something  to  be 
feared  and  resisted,  it  is  important  that  certain  clear-cut 
distinctions  should  be  held  firmly  in  the  mind.  We  are 
always  wrong  and  unchristian  when  we  heap  wholesale 
condemnation  upon  the  members  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
church,  for  in  that  communion  there  are  many  of  the 
truest  and  noblest  saints  which  God  has  at  present  in  this 
world.  We  are  always  wrong  and  inexcusably  mean  when 
we  lump  all  Roman  Catholic  priests  together  and  cover 
them  with  a  common  condemnation,  for  in  the  priesthood 
there  are  faithful  followers  of  Christ  who  in  the  midst  of 
privation  and  self-sacrificing  toil  are  doing  an  amount  of 
good  which  will  never  be  known  until  the  judgment  day. 
We  are  always  wrong  and  untrue  to  our  traditions  when- 

[74] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

ever  we  condemn  or  make  light  of  Roman  Catholic  forms  of 
worship.  We  have  no  use  for  incense,  candles,  the  rosary 
and  the  sanctus  bell,  but  other  people  have,  and  they  have 
a  perfect  right  to  use  them  if  they  wish.  Because  such 
things  are  not  helpful  to  us,  it  does  not  follow  they  are  not 
helpful  to  our  brethren,  and  who  are  we,  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  if  we  deny  to  any  body  of  Christians  the 
right  to  approach  God  in  public  worship  in  any  way 
whatsoever  that  is  pleasing  to  their  souls?  We  are 
always  unchristian  and  always  mean  when  we  pass 
sweeping  condemnation  upon  the  membership  of  Ro- 
man Catholic  churches,  upon  the  priesthood,  or  upon 
Catholic  forms  of  worship,  but  we  are  always  right 
when  we  fear  and  condemn  and  resist  to  the  uttermost 
the  Roman  Catholic  idea  of  government,  for  that  idea 
is  false  and  mischievous  and  dangerous.  It  has  wrought 
havoc  in  every  country  in  which  it  has  been  given 
full  play.  Unless  checked,  it  would  wreck  the  American 
republic. 

I  always  take  delight  in  speaking  words  of  praise  about 
the  Puritan,  thinking  that  possibly  I  may  catch  the  ear 
of  some  man  who  has  hitherto  spoken  of  him  with  disrespect 
or  scorn.  There  are  many  men  who  never  speak  the  name 
"  Puritan  "  except  with  a  sneer.  But  sneers  are  ofttimes 
the  very  greatest  eulogies.  Some  of  the  great  names  in 
human  language  were  sneers  at  the  beginning.  The  word 
''  Quaker  "  was  a  sneer  hurled  at  George  Fox  and  his 
followers  from  lips  curled  in  scorn.  The  word  "  Methodist  " 
was  a  sneer,  a  very  bitter  and  cutting  sneer.  "  The  friend 
of  publicans  and  sinners  "  was  a  sneer,  and  so  was  also 
"  He  saved  others,  himself  he  cannot  save."  The  cross 
of  Jesus  was  a  sneer,  a  bitter,  piercing  sneer,  but  God  has 
changed  it  into  the  symbol  of  the  love  that  is  infinite.    The 

[75] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

word  "  Puritan  "  was  a  sneer.  It  has  been  a  sneer  for 
three  hundred  years.  But  when  men  read  history  with 
their  eyes,  the  world  will  become  transfigured,  and  be- 
fore the  race  has  run  its  course  there  will  be  no  sweeter, 
grander  name  than  Puritan,  for  he  was  the  man  who  at 
a  crucial  hour  in  the  tremendous  struggle  for  human 
liberty  threw  his  blazing  heart  against  the  hosts  of  despot- 
ism and  made  it  possible  for  nations  to  be  free.  Macaulay 
was  no  friend  of  the  Puritans,  but  candor  compelled  him 
to  confess  that  perhaps  they  were  the  most  remarkable 
body  of  men  that  history  had  ever  produced.  Hallam 
was  not  prejudiced  in  favor  of  the  Puritans,  but  he  called 
them  the  depositaries  of  the  sacred  fire  of  liberty.  Hume 
did  not  accept  the  religious  belief  of  the  Puritans:  "  The 
precious  spark  of  liberty  was  preserved  by  the  Puritans 
alone.  To  them  the  English  owe  the  freedom  of  their 
constitution."  John  Richard  Green  was  not  biased  when 
he  stated  that  the  history  of  English  progress  since  the 
Restoration,  on  its  moral  and  spiritual  sides,  has  been 
the  history  of  Puritanism.  Carlyle  rejected  much  of  the 
Puritans'  faith,  but  he  declared  Puritanism  was  the  last 
of  the  world's  heroisms.  Whatever  else  then  the  Puritan 
may  have  been,  or  failed  to  be,  he  was  the  foe  of  despotism, 
the  warrior  by  whose  sweat  and  blood  the  principle  of 
liberty  was  given  a  local  habitation  and  a  name.  And 
when  we,  facing  the  problems  and  the  dangers  which 
confront  us,  grow  despondent,  or  when  we,  submerged  in 
business  or  immersed  in  pleasure,  grow  lukewarm  in  our 
adherence  to  the  principles  that  are  high,  or  when  we, 
daunted  by  the  excesses  and  extravagances  of  democracy, 
begin  to  question  the  wisdom  of  the  principle  upon  which 
the  modern  world  is  built,  let  us  on  the  Lord's  day  listen 
attentively  to  the  voice  behind  us,  the  voice  of  those  in- 

[76] 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  PURITAN  IN  HISTORY 

trepid  servants  of  the  Lord  who  with  sacrifices  multitudi- 
nous and  indescribable  won  for  us  a  larger  place  in  which 
to  do  our  work  and  flung  over  our  heads  a  sky  in  which 
mighty  thoughts  shall  burn  forever. 


1 77] 


THE   PURITAN   TYPE  ^ 

The  world  cannot  dispense  with  its  great  men  after  they 
are  dead.  We  cannot  get  on  without  the  wisdom  and  in- 
sight of  those  who  have  inspired  us,  after  a  cloud  has  re- 
ceived them  from  our  sight.  It  is  a  pathetic  story  which 
the  Old  Testament  tells  us  of  how  King  Saul  at  a  critical 
time  in  his  life  felt  an  insatiable  yearning  for  the  prophet 
Samuel.  Samuel  was  in  his  grave  and  Saul  felt  desolate 
and  helpless  without  him.  For  years  Samuel  had  been  the 
leader  of  Israel.  Even  when  his  counsels  had  been  despised, 
his  greatness  had  been  acknowledged.  Saul,  surrounded 
by  his  enemies,  feels  the  need  of  the  assistance  which  only 
the  great-hearted  prophet,  could  render,  and  so  he  goes 
up  and  down  the  land  in  search  of  a  wizard  able  to  bring 
the  prophet  up  from  the  realms  of  the  dead.  In  Saul  we 
see  the  image  of  humanity.  That  is  what  mankind  has 
always  been  doing.  In  all  of  its  difficulties  and  in  the 
midst  of  its  tribulations  it  has  ever  felt  the  need  of  the 
wisdom  and  strength  of  the  prophet  who  has  departed. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  the  cry  breaks  into  voice  on 
the  lips  of  the  poet  Wordsworth.  Wordsworth  as  he  looks 
out  over  English  society  is  appalled  by  its  problems  and 
disasters.  He  feels  the  need  of  the  strength  of  men  like 
Milton.  In  words  which  have  become  immortal  he  cries 
out: 

"  Milton!  thou  should 'st  be  living  at  this  hour; 
England  hath  need  of  thee. 

1  Dec.  14,  1913. 

[78] 


THE  PURITAN  TYPE 

We  are  selfish  men; 
Oh!  raise  us  up,  return  to  us  again; 
And  give  us  manners,  virtue,  freedom,  power. 
Thy  soul  was  like  a  Star,  and  dwelt  apart: 
Thou  hadst  a  voice  whose  sound  was  like  the  sea. 
Pure  as  the  naked  heavens,  majestic,  free." 

Do  not  we  Americans  every  February  cry  out  for  great 
men  who  have  left  us?  Do  we  not  say  at  our  banquets, 
"  O  Washington,  raise  us  up,  and  Lincoln,  return  to  us 
again  !  "  We  who  love  our  country  and  are  most  sensitive 
to  its  needs  feel  that  we  cannot  get  on  without  the  brain  of 
Washington,  without  the  heart  of  Lincoln.  Humanity 
always  keeps  calling  out  after  its  heroes  who  have  vanished, 
its  saints  who  have  left  it,  its  sepulchered  deliverers  and 
sufferers.  The  nations  cannot  live  and  conquer  without 
fresh  baptisms  of  the  spirit  of  their  immortal  dead. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  take  delight  on  one  Sunday 
of  every  December  in  standing  in  this  pulpit  and  calling 
back  the  Puritan.  I  send  my  voice  rolling  through  the 
nineteenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  back  into  the  seven- 
teenth, appealing  to  the  central  man  of  that  century,  its 
dominant  hero,  to  come  back  and  give  us  the  blessing 
which  he  alone  is  able  to  bestow.  I  take  all  the  more 
delight  in  doing  this  because  there  are  many  men  now 
living  who  cannot  appreciate  the  Puritan.  Gallio  does  not 
understand  him.  Gallio  is  never  able  to  interpret  great 
spiritual  movements.  Gallio  is  always  indifferent  to  the 
defenders  of  mighty  causes.  Festus  does  not  understand 
him.  Festus  cannot  comprehend  the  behavior  of  the  man 
whose  soul  has  been  kindled  by  the  fire  from  off  God's 
altar.  Festus  always  says  to  a  leader  of  mankind,  "  Thou 
art  beside  thyself.  Something  or  other  has  made  thee 
mad."  There  are  large  sections  of  our  American  society 
so  frivolous  and  so  worldly-minded  that  they  are  incapaci- 

[79] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

tated  for  the  understanding  of  the  Puritan.  Many  of  our 
young  men  and  young  women  do  not  understand  him. 
They  have  been  prejudiced  against  him  by  things  they  have 
read  and  heard.  In  certain  books  of  history,  and  in  many 
a  novel,  and  in  not  a  few  magazines  and  papers  there  are 
flings  at  the  Puritan,  gibes  and  jeers,  sayings  that  are  sar- 
castic. Society  often  pronounces  the  word  "  Puritan  " 
with  an  intonation  that  has  in  it  the  sharp  edge  of  a  sneer. 
There  are  many  who  always  think  of  the  Puritan  as  an 
odd  individual  who  cropped  his  hair  short  and  talked 
through  his  nose.  He  was  a  narrow  and  benighted  soul 
who  did  not  believe  in  reading  fiction  and  had  no  eye 
for  beauty.  He  was  a  bigoted  fanatic  who  broke  the  noses 
off  the  statues  in  the  great  English  Cathedrals,  and  who 
in  New  England  drove  out  of  his  community  people  who 
differed  from  him  in  opinion.  He  was  a  man  with  a  hard 
and  cruel  heart  who  put  culprits  condemned  for  small 
offences  into  the  stocks  and  hung  women  who  were  ac- 
cused of  witchcraft.  That  is  the  picture  of  the  Puritan 
which  hangs  before  many  an  American  mind. 

But  we  must  remember  that  every  man,  as  Lowell  says, 
is  the  prisoner  of  his  date.  Every  man  is  shut  up  inside 
the  conceptions  of  his  generation.  For  instance,  all  the 
men  who  wrote  the  Scriptures  were  the  prisoners  of  their 
date  in  their  scientific  views.  They  were  all  imprisoned 
inside  of  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy.  They  all  supposed 
that  the  sun  moved  round  the  earth,  and  that  the  earth 
was  the  center  of  the  universe.  How  was  it  possible  for 
them  to  get  out?  In  their  moral  and  spiritual  conceptions, 
however,  they  transcended  their  age.  They  held  views  of 
God  and  man  which  have  made  them  the  teachers  of  all 
succeeding  generations.  The  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth 
century  were  prisoners  of  their  date.    They  were  shut  up 

[80] 


THE  PURITAN  TYPE 

inside  the  idea  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  demoniacal 
possession,  and  that  witchcraft  is  a  crime  which  ought  to 
feel  the  full  rigors  of  the  law.  Every  person  of  importance 
in  the  seventeenth  century  believed  that.  It  was  the  con- 
viction of  all  the  great  lawyers,  the  most  learned  doctors, 
the  most  famous  teachers,  and  the  most  intelligent  rulers 
and  statesmen.  Men  and  women  were  put  to  death  by  the 
thousands  and  by  the  tens  of  thousands  all  over  Europe 
on  the  charge  of  witchcraft.  Roman  Catholics  were 
responsible  for  these  executions  in  Italy  and  Spain,  Luth- 
erans in  Germany,  Episcopalians  in  England,  Presby- 
terians in  Scotland,  and  Puritans  in  New  England.  It 
ought  to  be  added  that  the  Puritans  were  guilty  of  only  a 
few  such  executions,  and  that  they  never  on  American 
soil  burnt  a  solitary  witch.  When  you  hear  people  talking 
of  the  burning  of  witches  in  New  England  they  are  talking 
of  something  which  never  happened. 

If  you  wish  to  measure  the  stature  of  men  you  must 
not  judge  them  by  the  ideas  which  they  shared  with  their 
generation,  but  by  the  ideas  which  were  peculiar  to  them, 
to  which  they  gave  luster  and  vigor,  and  which  they 
endowed  with  such  tremendous  vitality  as  to  make  them 
powerful  and  conquering  through  succeeding  generations. 
So  far  as  belief  in  witchcraft  was  concerned,  the  Puritans 
were  like  all  the  other  people  of  their  century,  but  the 
Puritans  had  a  few  ideas  which  were  peculiar  to  them  — 
advanced  and  radical  ideas,  wonderful  and  powerful  ideas, 
and  it  is  by  those  ideas  that  they  are  to  be  judged.  What 
were  these  peculiar  ideas?  The  first  one  was  this :  "Christ 
is  the  head  of  the  church.  The  gentleman  who  claims  to 
sit  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  in  Rome  is  not  the  head  of  the 
church  in  any  such  sense  that  he  can  dictate  to  all  Christians 
what  they  are  to  believe  and  how  they  are  to  worship  God. 

[8i] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

Nor  is  the  gentleman  who  sits  on  the  throne  of  England 
the  head  of  the  church  in  such  a  sense  as  to  give  him  au- 
thority over  the  worship  and  belief  of  Christian  men.  The 
charter  of  the  Christian  church  is  the  Bible.  The  Pope 
cannot  write  the  charter  of  the  church,  nor  can  the  king, 
nor  can  parliament.  The  charter  has  already  been  written. 
It  was  written  by  holy  men  of  old  who  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  state  cannot  dictate  to  the 
church.  Christians  are  free  men  in  Christ.  Every  man 
answers  to  God  alone  for  his  belief  and  looks  to  God  alone 
for  instructions  as  to  the  form  of  his  worship." 

All  that  sounds  commonplace  enough  to  us  now,  but  it 
was  not  commonplace  three  hundred  years  ago.  It  was 
radical,  quite  revolutionary  then,  more  radical  and  revolu- 
tionary than  the  very  wildest  of  modern  notions  on  political 
and  religious  subjects  seem  to  us.  To  the  men  of  their 
generation  the  Puritans  were  determined  to  turn  the  world 
upside  down,  they  were  undermining  the  very  foundations 
of  all  ecclesiastical  authority.  They  were  certain  to  bring 
political  institutions  dow^n  in  ruin  on  men's  heads.  Those 
were  the  ideas  which  were  peculiar  to  the  Puritan,  and  it 
is  those  ideas  which  he  wrote  indelibly  on  the  life  of  the 
world. 

To  be  sure  the  Puritans  had  their  oddities,  their  eccen- 
tricities. All  men  have.  When  you  want  to  caricature  a 
man,  you  take  up  his  idiosyncrasies.  You  do  not  seize 
upon  things  in  which  he  resembles  others,  but  the  things 
in  which  he  is  peculiar.  If  you  want  to  caricature  socialism, 
you  hold  up  as  an  example  the  most  rabid  and  fanatical 
socialist  you  can  find.  If  you  wish  to  caricature  w^oman  suf- 
frage, you  hold  up  the  crankiest  of  all  the  suffragettes.  The 
men  who  have  wished  to  caricature  the  Puritans  have 
seized  upon  a  few  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  oddest  of  them, 

[82] 


THE  PURITAN  TYPE 

and  have  tried  to  make  the  world  believe  that  all  Puritans 
were  bundles  of  disagreeable  qualities.  Macaulay,  for 
instance,  has  painted  us  a  portrait  of  the  Puritan  which 
has  prejudiced  thousands  against  him.  He  has  called 
attention  to  his  lank  hair,  his  nasal  twang,  his  peculiar 
dialect,  his  sanctimonious  air.  But  we  must  remember 
that  Macaulay  was  a  rhetorician.  He  has  had  few  peers 
as  a  word  artist.  He  could  paint  the  exterior  of  things,  but 
he  was  sadly  lacking  in  insight.  He  could  not  read  charac- 
ter. He  had  no  grasp  of  spiritual  forces.  He  does  not 
know  how  to  interpret  the  important  phenomena  of  history. 
You  must  lay  your  John  Henry  Greene  down  by  the  side 
of  Macaulay  if  you  would  understand  the  history  of  Eng- 
land. It  was  not  his  lank  hair  and  his  nasal  twang  that 
made  a  Puritan  what  he  was.  Men  do  not  climb  to  the 
seats  of  power  by  nasal  twang  or  lank  hair.  It  was  because 
of  what  there  was  in  him  that  made  this  man  mighty. 
Instead  of  laughing  at  his  peculiarities  it  is  better  worth 
our  while  to  grasp  the  secret  of  his  phenomenal  energy 
and  his  perennial  power.  Our  subject  this  morning  is  the 
Puritan  Type. 

That  the  Puritan  is  a  distinct  type  in  the  portrait  gallery 
of  the  world  every  one  is  bound  to  confess.  The  Puritan 
conscience  was  a  spiritual  creation.  It  did  not  exist  in 
England  before  the  Puritan  came.  He  created  it,  and  it 
exists  to  the  present  hour.  It  is  not  known  as  the  Puritan 
conscience  in  England  now,  it  is  called  the  Non-conformist 
conscience.  It  is  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with  in  every 
English  political  campaign.  For  more  than  two  hundred 
years  English  statesmen  and  politicians  have  been  obliged 
to  reckon  with  this  invisible  and  mighty  force.  They 
have  not  dared  to  do  things  which  they  wanted  to  do,  and 
they  have  been  obliged  to  do  things  which  they  did  not 

[83] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

desire  to  do,  all  because  of  their  wholesome  fear  of  the 
Puritan  conscience.  In  our  own  country  the  Puritan  con- 
science has  been  usually  known  as  the  New  England  con- 
science. It  was  created  by  the  early  New  Englanders.  It 
has  been  carried  through  the  life  of  a  belt  of  states  ex- 
tending across  the  continent.  All  over  this  country  men 
speak  either  in  praise  or  derision  of  the  New  England  con- 
science. As  there  is  a  Puritan  conscience  so  is  there  also 
a  Puritan  mind,  a  Puritan  viewpoint,  a  Puritan  attitude 
to  life.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  Puritan  face.  You  hear 
men  saying,  "  He  looks  like  a  Puritan."  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  the  Puritan  poise,  the  Puritan  bearing.  You  see 
in  the  distance  a  statue  —  you  can  see  only  the  outlines, 
you  do  not  know  whom  it  represents  —  but  you  say  to  your- 
self, "  That  looks  like  a  Puritan."  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  the  Puritan  type.  It  stands  out  clean-cut  and  distinct 
before  the  eyes  of  the  world.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  set 
of  men  to  be  able  to  contribute  to  the  spiritual  wealth  of 
the  world  a  distinct  and  notable  type  of  manhood. 

In  the  portrait  gallery  of  mankind  there  are  different 
types  of  sainthood,  one  of  the  most  striking  of  which  is 
the  mediaeval  type.  This  type  is  best  represented,  possi- 
bly, by  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Thomas  a  Kempis.  It  is  a 
beautiful  type.  The  world  would  be  poorer  without  it. 
It  is  the  contemplative  type  of  piety,  it  is  the  type  of  man 
who  meditates  and  prays.  The  middle  ages  produced  a 
kind  of  Christian  who  is  so  beautiful  that  his  charm  is  still 
over  the  world.  You  are  fascinated  by  the  beauty  in  the 
faces  of  the  mediaeval  saints.  There  is  a  look  of  gentle- 
ness, sweetness,  submissiveness,  patience  which  impresses 
us  as  divine.  It  is  this  image  of  sainthood  which  has  been 
stamped  indelibly  upon  the  mind  of  the  whole  Christian 
world.    This  is  the  type  of  which  we  are  thinking  when  we 

[84] 


THE  PURITAN  TYPE 

say  of  a  man  or  a  woman,  "  O  he  is  a  saint!  "  We  call 
him  a  saint  because  he  is  so  calm,  so  unruffled,  so  patient, 
so  sweet-spirited,  so  gentle.  Only  a  man  like  that  can  be 
in  our  estimation  a  saint.  It  is  probably  because  this  is 
our  idea  of  sainthood  that  it  is  generally  conceded  that  there 
are  more  saints  among  women  than  among  men.  But  in 
the  fulness  of  time  another  type  was  added,  another  picture 
was  hung  by  the  side  of  the  picture  which  the  middle  ages 
had  painted,  to  the  mediaeval  type  of  Puritan  was  added 
a  type  of  an  entirely  different  character.  In  the  Puritan 
we  have  a  saint  of  achievement,  a  militant  saint,  a  saint 
endowed  with  a  genius  for  action,  a  saint  who  gives  himself 
to  public  service,  who  sets  himself  to  the  herculean  task 
of  reforming  customs  and  institutions.  This  Puritan  saint 
has  a  different  look  in  his  face  from  Francis  of  Assisi  or 
Thomas  a  Kempis.  He  is  not  so  gentle  nor  so  sweet. 
There  is  something  somber,  almost  severe,  in  his  looks.  At 
times  he  is  almost  grim.  A  Puritan  is  a  fire,  a  man  of 
action,  a  worker  who  brings  things  to  pass,  a  hero  who 
wrestles  with  the  demons  in  the  dusty  arena  of  the  world, 
covering  himself  with  dust  in  his  efforts  to  win  the  victory. 
Both  types  of  sainthood  are  beautiful.  We  could  not 
get  on  without  either  of  them.  We  need  the  picture  of 
the  Catholic  saint,  and  we  likewise  need  the  picture  of  the 
Puritan  saint.  Both  of  them  can  bless  us  if  we  will  receive 
their  blessing. 

When  one  studies  the  Puritan  portrait  he  discovers  two 
prominent  features.  The  first  is  seriousness.  The  Puritan 
was  a  serious  man.  From  our  standard  he  was  quite  too 
serious.  His  seriousness  was  rooted  in  his  religion.  His 
religion  was  dominated  by  his  conception  of  God.  The 
attribute  of  the  deity  which  impressed  him  most  profoundly 
was  holiness.     The  music  which  thrilled  him  as  no  other 

[85] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

music  did  was  the  music  which  Isaiah  heard  in  the  Temple, 
the  anthem  of  the  seraphim,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord 
God  of  Hosts!  "  The  command  in  the  scriptures  which 
most  arrested  his  attention  was,  "Be  ye  holy  even  as  I 
am  holy."  Wherever  he  found  the  word  holiness,  he 
paused  and  meditated  upon  it.  He  believed  that  without 
holiness  no  one  can  see  the  Lord.  "  Come  out  from  among 
them  and  be  ye  separate  "  was  a  text  which  he  loved  to 
hear  expounded.  "  Touch  not  the  unclean  thing  "  was 
an  exhortation  which  he  tried  to  obey.  The  world  in  his 
day  was  frightfully  corrupt.  The  Church  was  polluted 
and  the  State  was  rotten.  With  his  vision  of  God  and  his 
conception  of  duty  it  was  inevitable  that  the  Puritan  should 
be  a  serious  man.  His  seriousness  is  one  of  the  two  chief 
features  of  the  Puritan  type  of  manhood. 

His  second  most  prominent  feature  is  activity.  This  also 
was  rooted  in  the  Puritan's  religion.  He  conceived  of  God 
as  the  Judge  before  whom  every  man  must  at  last  stand 
and  render  an  account  of  the  deeds  done  in  the  body. 
He  was  weighted  down  with  the  sense  of  responsibility. 
He  was  accountable  not  only  for  his  own  actions,  but  he 
was  also  accountable  for  the  conduct  of  the  state  and  the 
church.  He  believed  that  it  was  a  part  of  a  man's  religion 
to  secure  a  good  government,  a  government  whose  policies 
should  square  with  the  principles  of  God.  He  believed 
that  it  is  a  man's  business  to  do  everything  in  his  power 
to  make  the  church  worthy  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It 
was  this  deep  sense  of  responsibility  which  made  the 
Puritan  a  reformer.  A  reformer  is  a  man  who  fashions 
things  over.  He  takes  hold  of  things  and  reshapes  them. 
He  makes  things  over  after  a  new  ideal.  The  Puritan  went 
furiously  to  work  both  in  State  and  Church  to  make  things 
over  after  the  ideal  which  had  been  revealed  in  Christ.    He 

[86] 


THE  PURITAN  TYPE 

took  hold  of  things  with  both  hands,  and  with  an  energy 
almost  superhuman  he  bent  things  to  his  will.  He  may  be 
called  a  practical  idealist.  An  idealist  is  a  man  who  has  a 
vision  of  a  better  world  above  the  world  which  now  is. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  idealists  —  visionary  and  practical. 
The  visionary  idealist  has  a  vision  of  a  better  world,  but 
he  does  nothing  to  usher  it  in.  He  sees  what  ought  to  be, 
but  he  puts  forth  no  effort  to  bring  it  to  pass.  A  practical 
idealist  is  a  man  who  not  only  has  the  vision,  but  he  also 
puts  forth  efforts  to  work  his  vision  into  deed.  The  Puri- 
tan was  an  idealist  who  insisted  upon  reducing  his  visions 
to  mundane  facts. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  we  come  to  the  explanation  of 
his  unpopularity.  He  was  unpopular  because  he  was  a 
reformer.  All  reformers  since  the  beginning  of  the  world 
have  been  unpopular.  It  is  impossible  to  reshape  this 
world  without  stirring  up  opposition  and  hatred.  No  one 
can  attempt  to  make  things  other  than  they  are  without 
lacerating  men's  feelings  and  incurring  their  ill  will.  You 
cannot  take  a  splinter  out  of  your  finger  without  all  the 
surrounding  nerves  shrieking  out  the  moment  you  put 
the  instrument  in  to  pull  the  splinter  away.  You  cannot 
remove  an  abnormal  growth  in  the  body  without  shedding 
blood.  You  cannot  change  any  established  feature  of  any 
earthly  institution  without  arousing  the  antagonism  of  a 
host  of  men  who  want  things  to  remain  as  they  are.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  all  reformers  have  been  hated  and 
many  of  them  have  been  killed.  Elijah  was  a  reformer, 
and  Ahab  hated  him.  Listen  to  the  indignant  king  as  he 
cries  out  to  the  meddlesome  prophet,  "  O  thou  troubler 
of  Israel."  Jeremiah  was  a  reformer,  and  so  the  Jews 
threw  him  into  a  cistern  to  get  him  out  of  their  sight. 
John  the  Baptist  was  a  reformer,  and  so  Herod  gave  orders 

[87] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

to  have  his  head  cut  off.  Paul  was  a  reformer,  and  so  he 
was  hounded  from  city  to  city  by  a  pack  of  men  who  said 
he  was  trying  to  turn  the  world  upside  down.  Jesus  was 
a  reformer,  and  that  is  why  he  was  crucified.  The  Puritan 
was  the  most  radical  and  vigorous  reformer  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles,  and  that  accounts  for  the  fact  that  his 
calumniators  have  pursued  him  with  venomous  words  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years. 

Here  also  we  get  an  explanation  of  the  severity  of  the 
Puritan's  face.  He  has  a  wonderful  face.  You  cannot 
forget  it  when  you  have  once  seen  it.  It  is  the  face  of  a 
man  who  has  fought  and  suffered.  The  Puritan  lived  in 
desperate  times,  and  the  mighty  struggle  in  which  he  en- 
gaged left  deep  marks  upon  his  face.  What  gave  Lincoln 
that  look  of  his  which  haunts  us?  It  was  the  Civil  War. 
It  was  the  agony  that  he  suffered  through  four  years  of 
bloodshed  that  deepened  the  melancholy  in  his  eyes  and 
stamped  upon  his  face  an  expression  which  causes  him 
to  stand  out  unique  among  all  the  men  America  has  pro- 
duced. What  gave  Dante  his  grim  and  awe-inspiring  look? 
The  Italian  women  used  to  say  to  one  another  when  Dante 
passed  them  in  the  street,  "  There  goes  the  man  who  has 
been  in  hell."  It  was  his  tremendous  struggle  with  his 
enemies  and  the  anguish  of  long-continued  exile  which 
sculptured  Dante's  face.  You  never  can  forget  it  after 
you  have  looked  upon  it.  Tennyson  used  to  ponder  the 
difference  between  Dante  and  Goethe,  and  he  concluded 
that  the  difference  between  the  two  faces  is  that  in  Dante's 
face  there  is  something  of  the  divine.  Goethe  was  a  self- 
indulgent  pagan.  His  mother  brought  him  up  to  avert  his 
eyes  from  everything  that  was  disagreeable  or  painful. 
The  kind  of  life  he  lived  is  pictured  in  his  face.  There  is 
nothing  of  the  divine  there.    The  Puritan  has  a  face  which 

[88] 


THE  PURITAN  TYPE 

haunts  us.  It  has  in  it  traces  of  the  divine.  It  is  a  pathetic 
face  because  it  tells  of  burdens  which  he  bore  for  us,  and 
the  battles  which  he  fought  in  order  that  we  might  be 
free. 

What  type  of  sainthood  do  you  think  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury is  producing?  I  have  been  asking  myself  what  sort 
of  a  saint  is  the  church  of  our  day  building?  What  is  our 
typical  Christian  like?  Would  we  be  willing  to  hang  his 
picture  by  the  side  of  the  Catholic  monk  and  the  Puritan 
hero?  Is  there  anything  distinctively  commanding  in  the 
type  of  manhood  which  the  church  to-day  is  forming? 
Many  of  the  European  scholars,  from  de  Tocqueville 
down,  who  have  written  about  America  have  called  atten- 
tion to  our  lack  of  distinction.  They  insist  upon  it  that 
we  are  commonplace  and  prosaic,  democracy  has  a  down- 
pulling  tendency  and  makes  everyone  too  much  like  every- 
body else.  This  was  the  feature  of  our  life  which  always 
impressed  Matthew  Arnold.  He  thought  we  were  as  flat 
as  though  a  steam-roller  had  passed  over  us.  Henry 
James,  one  of  our  own  citizens,  after  he  had  lived  in  Eng- 
land for  a  few  years,  was  wont  on  his  return  to  our  country 
to  pass  the  same  condemnation  which  had  been  passed  by 
Matthew  Arnold.  We  are  too  prosaic,  too  much  inclined 
to  echo  one  another's  opinions  and  follow  one  another's 
example.  We  are  not  daring  and  original  enough.  Men 
do  not  venture  to  go  ahead  of  their  fellows  and  blaze  a  trail 
that  is  new.  There  is  nothing  America  so  much  needs  as 
a  man  who  approaches  the  Puritan  type.  What  we  want 
is  men  who  have  a  vision,  and  who  do  not  hesitate  to  work 
for  the  conversion  of  that  vision  into  fact.  We  need  men 
who  are  intrepid  and  radical,  aggressive  and  daring,  who 
are  not  afraid  to. conceive  bold  schemes  and  stand  up  for 
them,  no  matter  who  sneers  at  them  and  stabs   them  in 

[89] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

the  back.     It  is  this  type  of  man  who  makes  history,  and 
it  is  this  type  of  man  who  will  save  our  republic. 

Of  course  we  cannot  reproduce  the  form  of  life  that  was 
lived  by  the  Puritans.  The  world  can  never  go  back  and 
slavishly  imitate  the  men  of  preceding  generations.  We 
cannot  think  and  feel  and  act  as  the  Puritans  did,  or  as 
the  reformers  did,  or  as  Jesus  and  the  apostles  did.  It  is 
necessary  that  we  should  be  ourselves.  We  must  form  a 
type  of  our  own.  We  must  build  a  manhood  peculiar  to 
ourselves.  But  so  long  as  the  world  stands  there  are  two 
features  of  manhood  that  will  never  become  obsolete, 
there  are  two  traits  which  each  succeeding  generation  must 
admire  and  reproduce,  and  one  is  the  trait  of  seriousness, 
and  the  other  is  loyalty  to  the  heavenly  vision.  No  man 
stands  in  history  with  a  halo  round  his  head  except  the 
man  who  is  reverent  toward  his  Maker,  and  who  lives  to 
fulfill  his  Maker's  will. 


[90] 


VI 

THE   PURITAN   AND   THE  CAVALIERS 

''Be  not  conformed  to  this  world:  but  he  ye  transformed,^^  —  Romans 
12:2. 

William  Wordsworth  in  one  of  the  finest  of  his  poems 

says: 

"  There  is 
One  great  society  alone  on  earth : 
The  noble  living  and  the  noble  dead." 

The  poet  sees  that  there  are  two  sections  of  this-  great 
society,  and  he  links  the  two  together.  In  order  to  make 
ourselves  members  of  this  society,  we  must  often  commune 
with  it,  and  draw  from  it  into  our  lives  fresh  stores  of 
inspiration. 

We  do  not  think  frequently  enough  of  the  noble  living. 
Do  you  find  yourself  thinking  often  of  the  noble  men  who 
are  serving  God  in  your  day  and  generation,  some  in  public 
ofifice,  others  in  the  retirement  of  private  life,  some  in  our 
own  country,  others  on  far-off  mission  fields?  Do  you 
meditate  now  and  again  upon  their  words,  their  deeds, 
their  characters,  and  let  your  heart  go  out  to  them  in  a  tide 
of  appreciation,  thankfulness  and  praise?  Alas,  we  too 
often  forget  the  noble  living,  and  we  are  still  more  prone 
to  lose  sight  of  the  noble  dead.  The  present  like  a  hundred- 
handed  giant  lays  all  its  hands  upon  us,  and,  held  fast  in 
their  inexorable  clutch,  we  have  no  time  to  think  of  the  men 
who  bore  the  burden  in  the  heat  of  the  day  before  we  were 
born.  Too  seldom  do  we  meditate  upon  the  heroes  and 
heroines  who  fought  the  good  fight  and  kept  the  faith  in 

iDec.  20,  1914. 

[91] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

other  lands  and  far-off  times,  and  too  languidly  do  we 
enter  into  the  sacrifices  and  sufferings  of  the  dauntless 
spirits  by  whose  fidelity  to  fine  ideals  the  world  was  lifted 
to  higher  levels  of  thought  and  action.  We  cannot  afford 
to  allow  a  December  to  come  and  go  without  thinking  for 
at  least  a  few  minutes  about  the  little  company  of  English 
men  and  women  who  landed  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts 
on  December  21st,  1620,  and  without  pondering  afresh 
the  great  historic  movement  in  which  the  landing  of  the 
Mayflower  company  was  a  picturesque  and  memorable 
incident.  We  should  not  fail  to  enrich  ourselves  every 
year  by  thinking  of  some  scene  or  act  of  the  mighty  Puritan 
drama,  and  by  studying  again  some  particular  aspect 
of  the  invaluable  contribution  which  Puritanism  made  to 
the  progress  of  mankind.  Let  us  think  today  of  the  Puritan 
and  the  Cavalier,  a  study  in  contrasted  types  of  character. 
We  shall  see  the  Puritan  more  distinctly  if  we  look  at  him 
projected  against  a  disposition  and  a  temper  the  exact 
antithesis  of  his  own. 

English  Puritanism  had  its  rise,  as  you  know,  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  At  first  it  was  a  sort  of  ferment, 
a  spirit  of  restlessness,  dissatisfaction,  discontent.  It  was 
an  aspiration  after  larger  liberty,  a  longing  for  deliverance 
from  evils  by  which  the  church  of  Christ  was  plagued.  In 
sundry  isolated  and  humble  circles,  the  spirit  broke  forth 
into  articulate  but  ineffectual  voice.  In  the  reign  of  James 
I  this  spirit  of  dissatisfaction  with  things  as  they  were 
deepened  and  stiffened,  and  here  and  there  uttered  itself 
in  vehement  protest.  The  protest  took  in  many  instances 
the  form  of  exile.  Hundreds  of  Englishmen  were  so  dis- 
satisfied with  the  condition  of  the  church  in  their  native 
land,  that  they  crossed  the  English  channel  into  Holland, 

[92] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  CAVALIER 

where  they  could  enjoy  a  freedom  denied  them  at  home. 
In  the  reign  of  Charles  I  the  dissatisfaction  widened  and 
became  still  more  vigorous  and  aggressive.  Men  ceased 
to  flee  to  Holland  for  a  refuge.  They  stood  up  in  the  House 
of  Commons  and  made  the  full  story  of  their  grievances 
and  desires  known.  We  have  now  arrived  at  the  great 
times  of  John  Eliot  and  John  Pym  and  John  Hampden 
and  William  Laud,  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and  Prince  Rupert 
and  Sir  Henry  Vane.  The  ferment  which  started  in  little 
groups  of  obscure  Christian  men  and  women  kept  on  work- 
ing until  it  pervaded  a  large  part  of  the  nation.  The 
questions  which  were  at  first  discussed  in  religious  meetings 
in  private  houses,  worked  their  way  in  a  single  generation 
into  the  realm  of  political  discussion,  and  became  the  cause 
of  a  fatal  conflict  between  the  Parliament  and  the  King. 
The  contention  became  fiercer  and  hotter  until  England 
was  swept  at  last  into  the  horrors  of  civil  war. 

It  is  in  this  fierce  era  of  controversy  and  bloodshed  that 
we  come  upon  two  names  which  will  forever  hold  a  promi- 
nent place  in  English  history,  the  Roundhead  and  the 
Cavalier.  In  those  two  men  the  life  and  color  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  became  incarnate.  Both  names  are  nick- 
names, and,  like  many  another  nickname,  they  have  be- 
come immortal.  The  men  who  opposed  the  old  regime, 
and  who  were  determined  to  wrest  from  the  King  reforms 
which  he  refused  to  grant,  were  for  the  most  part  from 
the  middle  classes.  They  were  farmers,  small  traders, 
cobblers,  tinkers,  humble  folk  without  family  prestige, 
and  with  nothing  noble  about  them  but  a  spirit  which  was 
dissatisfied  with  the  present  and  eager  to  build  a  better 
government  and  a  purer  church.  Many  of  these  men 
flocked  to  London  to  hear  the  debates  in  Parliament,  and 

[93] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

were  called  derisively  by  the  adherents  of  the  King  — 
"  Roundheads."  It  was  customary  for  gentlemen  in  the 
seventeenth  century  to  wear  their  hair  long.  Often  it  was 
curled  and  the  curls  hung  down  sometimes  to  the  shoulders. 
Long  hair  was  a  sign  of  noble  blood,  good  breeding,  social 
refinement.  Men  without  social  standing  cut  their  hair 
short.  Apprentices  and  servants  cropped  their  hair  so 
close  that  the  exact  contour  of  the  head  could  be 
seen,  and  so  they  were  often  designated  "  Roundheads." 
The  term  was  now  taken  up  and  applied  to  all  men 
who  opposed  the  King.  The  Roundheads  retorted  by 
calling  their  opponents.  Cavaliers,  literally  horsemen,  but 
on  the  lips  of  the  Roundheads,  it  meant  soldiers  of 
fortune,  gay  and  dashing  courtiers,  haughty  and  disdainful 
aristocrats. 

England  was  thus  split  into  two  political  parties  —  the 
Roundheads  and  the  Cavaliers.  The  Cavaliers  were  loyal 
to  the  King,  devoted  to  the  church,  supporters  of  things 
as  they  were;  the  Roundheads  were  loyal  to  Parliament, 
zealous  for  ecclesiastical  reform,  eager  to  sweep  away  things 
as  they  were,  in  order  to  make  room  for  things  as  they 
ought  to  be.  Each  political  party  embodied  a  particular 
type  of  character.  The  Cavalier  stands  for  one  type,  the 
Puritan  or  Roundhead  for  another  type.  The  two  types 
have  often  been  held  up  side  by  side  to  furnish  instruction, 
entertainment,  and  admonition. 

The  Cavaliers  were  the  conservatives  of  England.  They 
were  loyal  to  the  King.  They  loved  the  old  traditions  which 
had  come  down  to  them  from  their  fathers.  They  were 
devoted  to  the  church.  They  loved  the  old  ceremonies, 
the  old  forms  of  worship,  the  old  prayer-book,  and  the  old 
ways  of  doing  things.     They  were  faithful  to  the  past. 

[94] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  CAVALIER 

They  loved  the  old  customs,  manners,  festivals  and  feasts. 
They  did  not  like  innovation.  They  were  fearful  of  the 
spirit  of  reform.  This  is  the  first  mark  of  the  Cavalier,  he  is 
everywhere  and  always  a  conservative,  a  devotee  of  the 
past,  a  conservator  of  things  as  they  are.  The  Cavalier 
of  the  seventeenth  century  was  a  worshiper  of  the  beauti- 
ful. He  loved  music  and  paintings  and  statues.  He  was 
fond  of  novels  and  the  theater.  He  reveled  in  art.  He 
had  an  eye  for  the  artistic.  He  was  more  responsive  to  the 
aesthetic  than  to  the  ethical.  The  beautiful  interested  him 
more  than  the  good.  This  is  the  Cavalier  in  all  centuries. 
He  is  attuned  to  the  beautiful.  He  prizes  art  more  than 
morality.  He  becomes  more  enthusiastic  over  the  lovely 
than  over  the  true.  The  seventeenth  century  Cavalier 
was  keenly  alive  in  his  sensuous  nature.  He  was  fond  of 
sports.  He  took  delight  in  amusements.  He  loved  society, 
and  was  charmed  by  the  gaieties  of  life.  He  looked  upon 
the  world  out  of  joyous  eyes.  He  believed  that  all  things  are 
given  to  us  richly  to  enjoy.  Pleasure  was  more  often  in  his 
thoughts  than  duty.  Conscience  was  not  a  cardinal 
word  in  his  vocabulary.  His  constant  tendency  was  to 
subordinate  duty  to  pleasure,  to  convert  life  into  a  glorious 
feast.  That  has  been  counted  one  of  the  traits  of  the 
Cavalier  character  in  all  times  and  places. 

Over  against  this  man  stands  the  Puritan  —  the  Round- 
head. He  was  the  man  who  was  not  held  tightly  by  the 
past.  By  nature  he  was  a  reformer.  In  temperament  he 
was  a  radical.  He  was  ready  to  change  anything,  no  matter 
how  sacred,  in  the  hope  of  making  it  better.  His  heart 
was  bent  on  progress.  He  was  willing  that  the  old  royal 
prerogatives  should  go.  He  was  not  averse  to  radical 
changes  in  church  government  and  worship.     He  had  an 

[95] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

ideal.  He  found  it  in  the  Bible.  He  strove  to  bring  the 
world  up  to  that  ideal,  no  matter  how  much  of  the  old  had 
to  be  sacrificed  in  the  process.  In  every  age  the  Puritan  is 
a  reformer. 

The  seventeenth  century  Puritan  threw  the  emphasis  on 
the  good.  Nothing  but  the  good  satisfied  him.  Holiness 
became  to  him  the  one  thing  to  be  aimed  at.  The  quest  after 
righteousness  became  a  passion.  Corruption  was  the 
one  thing  to  be  hated  and  gotten  rid  of.  No  matter  how 
artistically  evil  was  decked  out,  he  could  not  be  captivated. 
Artistic  loveliness  could  never  blind  his  eyes  to  moral  ugli- 
ness. Much  of  the  art  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  satu- 
rated with  moral  corruption,  and  the  Puritan  in  his  struggle 
for  cleanness  lost  his  appreciation  for  the  beautiful.  Art 
became  to  him  a  device  of  the  devil  to  lead  men  astray. 
He  felt  that  men  when  captivated  by  the  beautiful  ceased 
to  care  for  the  good  and  the  true.  And  so  he  turned  his 
back  on  pictures,  and  stopped  his  ears  to  music,  and  took 
no  interest  in  statuary,  and  abhorred  pictured  windows 
in  churches,  and  refused  to  read  novels,  and  looked  upon 
the  theater  as  an  open  door  to  perdition.  His  passion  for 
the  ethical  drove  him  into  an  irrational  depreciation  of  the 
aesthetic.  This  is  a  weak  point  in  the  Puritan  always. 
He  is  so  engrossed  in  the  battle  for  truth  and  righteousness, 
that  he  does  not  do  full  justice  to  the  brighter  and  more 
artistic  side  of  life. 

The  Puritan  of  three  hundred  years  ago  condemned  the 
Cavalier  for  his  general  view  of  life.  To  the  Cavalier  life 
is  a  feast,  to  the  Puritan  life  is  a  battle.  The  Cavalier  liked 
to  play.  The  Puritan  had  no  time  for  play.  The  Cavalier 
asked  himself  what  is  pleasant,  the  Puritan  had  but  one 
question:    What  is  my  duty?    Life  to  him  was  not  a  jest, 

[96] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  CAVALIER 

a  dance,  a  picnic;  it  was  a  difficult  piece  of  work  to  be  per- 
formed under  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye.  While  the 
Cavalier  was  reveling  in  his  sports,  the  Puritan  was  reading 
his  Bible  or  listening  to  sermons.  The  Puritan  is  every- 
where the  man  whose  tendency  it  is  to  cultivate  the  con- 
science overmuch,  and  to  crowd  recreation  out  of  the  cur- 
riculum of  life. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  never  possible  to  describe 
by  a  single  name  a  multitude  of  human  beings.  No  one 
word  will  ever  accurately  describe  the  character  of  every 
member  of  a  party  to  which  it  is  applied.  We  speak  some- 
times of  Republicans  and  Democrats  as  though  all  Republi- 
cans were  alike,  and  all  Democrats  were  alike.  They  are 
not  alike.  Republicans  differ  from  one  another  in  character, 
in  disposition,  in  attitude,  in  outlook,  in  many  doctrines 
of  political  belief  and  in  preferences  of  program  and  method. 
And  so  also  do  the  Democrats.  We  speak  of  Germans  as 
though  all  Germans  were  alike.  They  differ  in  nature,  in 
character,  in  opinion,  as  all  other  peoples  do.  When  re- 
cently a  distinguished  Frenchman  visited  our  city,  it  was 
a  common  remark:  "  Why,  he  does  not  look  at  all  like  a 
Frenchman  !  "  Just  as  though  all  Frenchmen  must  look 
alike  !  When  therefore  we  speak  of  Cavaliers  and  Round- 
heads, we  must  beware  of  being  misled  by  the  caricaturists, 
and  must  not  be  tyrannized  over  by  general  terms.  Both 
the  Cavalier  and  the  Puritan  had  their  excellences  and 
their  weaknesses.  They  both  went  to  extremes  and  it  is 
easy  to  caricature  them  both.  It  is  possible  so  to  picture 
the  Cavalier  as  to  make  him  out  a  dandy  and  a  fop,  a  prof- 
ligate and  rake,  a  roysterer  and  debauched.  Some  Cava- 
liers were  all  this,  but  many  Cavaliers  were  not.  There 
were  among  them  true  lovers,  and  faithful  husbands,  and 
tender  fathers,  and  men  of  great  and  earnest  souls,  who 

[97] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

lived  brave  lives  and  died  brave  deaths.  There  were  also 
Cavaliers  who  were  curled  and  perfumed  loafers,  and  some 
whose  sentiments  did  not  differ  from  those  of  Burns'  "Jolly 
Beggars  ": 

"  A  fig  for  those  by  law  protected; 
Liberty's  a  glorious  feast: 
Courts  for  cowards  were  erected; 
Churches  built  to  please  the  priest." 

But  there  were  other  Cavaliers  who  were  devoted  to  the 
things  that  are  noble  and  true,  who  had  deep-rooted  con- 
victions, and  who  met  death  with  as  much  courage  on  the 
field  of  battle  as  the  bravest  of  Cromwell's  Ironsides.  If  it 
is  easy  to  caricature  the  Cavalier,  it  is  even  easier  to  cari- 
cature the  Roundhead.  We  can  dwell  on  his  peculiarities, 
and  exaggerate  his  limitations,  and  emphasize  his  un- 
lovable traits  until  he  seems  little  more  than  sniveling  hypo- 
crite, a  sour-eyed  and  narrow-headed  bigot.  There  were 
Puritans  of  this  type,  but  there  were  other  types.  John 
Milton  was  a  Puritan  —  one  of  the  most  famous  of  them 
all  —  and  yet  he  wore  his  hair  long,  and  loved  music  and 
art,  and  even  wrote  plays,  and  Milton  was  by  no  means 
the  only  Puritan  who  loved  the  beautiful.  Push  Puritan- 
ism far  enough  and  you  get  the  ascetic  and  fanatic,  push 
the  spirit  of  the  Cavalier  to  the  limit  and  you  get  the 
roysterer  and  fop. 

The  fact  is  that  we  cannot  draw  a  line  by  means  of  a 
label,  and  put  all  men  of  one  type  on  one  side,  and  all  men 
of  the  opposite  type  on  the  other.  Inside  the  Puritan  lines 
the  Cavalier  type  persists  in  appearing,  and  inside  the 
Cavalier  lines  you  will  find  many  a  man  with  the  Puritan 
temper.  We  have  often  been  reminded  that  Massachusetts 
was  settled  by  the  Puritans  and  that  Virginia  was  settled 

[98] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  CAVALIER 

by  the  Cavaliers,  and  laborious  efforts  have  been  made  to 
contrast  the  two.  Sometimes  it  has  been  said  that  the 
South  has  been  dominated  by  the  Cavalier,  and  the  North 
by  the  Puritan.  But  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  all 
the  people  of  New  England  are  not  Puritans,  and  that 
all  the  people  of  the  South  are  not  Cavaliers.  Mr.  Henry 
Watterson  of  Kentucky,  in  an  oration  delivered  before  the 
New  England  Society  of  this  city  in  1897,  scorned  the 
idea  that  you  can  draw  a  sectional  line  between  the  Cava- 
liers and  Puritans  in  this  country.  He  reminded  his  hearers 
that  Daniel  Webster  had  all  the  vices  that  are  supposed  to 
have  signalized  the  Cavalier,  and  that  John  Calhoun  had 
all  the  virtues  that  are  claimed  for  the  Puritan.  He  went 
on  to  say  that  the  one  typical  Puritan  soldier  of  the  war 
was  a  southern,  and  not  a  northern,  soldier,  Stonewall 
Jackson  of  the  Virginia  line,  and  that  Ethan  Allen  and 
John  Stark  were  in  reality  Cavaliers. 

What  changes  time  brings!  Men  cannot  live  side  by  side 
upon  our  planet  without  influencing  one  another.  The 
Puritan  has  transformed  the  appearance  of  the  Cavalier. 
The  Cavalier  has  cut  off  his  curls,  and  has  become  a  veri- 
table Roundhead.  All  gentlemen  in  all  lands  are  to-day 
Roundheads.  The  Cavalier  has  laid  aside  his  ruff,  and 
ribbons  and  laces,  and  gorgeous  colors,  and  now  dresses 
with  the  simplicity  and  quietness  of  a  Roundhead.  All 
men  are  Roundheads  in  their  style  of  dress.  But  the  Puri- 
tan has  changed  even  more.  He  has  come  over  to  the 
Cavalier's  view  of  art.  The  Puritan  of  our  day  likes  pic- 
tures, and  is  fond  of  music,  and  believes  in  statuary,  and  is 
not  averse  to  reading  a  good  novel,  or  seeing  a  play.  The 
Cavalier  held  fast  to  something  which  the  world  could  not 
afford   to  lose,  and  now  the  Puritan  accepts  it  and  ac- 

[99] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

knowledges  that  it  is  good.  Beauty  and  art  no  less  than 
duty  and  conscience  are  words  proceeding  from  the  mouth 
of  God. 

The  history  of  the  world  may  be  said  to  be  the  story  of 
the  eternal  conflict  between  the  Puritan  and  the  Cavalier. 
Mr.  Ferrero,  the  greatest  living  Italian  historian,  in  his 
famous  work  on  the  Greatness  and  Decline  of  Rome, 
gives  a  graphic  description  of  the  way  in  which  Puritanism 
in  the  Roman  empire  struggled  generation  after  generation 
against  existing  conditions  until  finally  the  Puritan  spirit 
was  exhausted,  and  the  Empire  fell.  To  Ferrero  the  history 
of  Rome  is  the  story  of  the  conflict  between  Roman  Puri- 
tanism and  the  refined,  corrupt,  artistic  civilization  of  the 
Hellenized  East.  "  For  centuries,"  he  says,  "  the  old 
Roman  aristocracy  sought  through  legislation  and  ex- 
ample and  especially  through  religion  to  impose  simple  and 
pure  customs  upon  all  classes,  to  check  the  increase  of 
luxury,  to  keep  the  family  united  and  strong,  to  curb  dis- 
solute and  perverse  instincts,  and  to  give  a  character  of 
decency  and  propriety  to  all  forms  of  amusement."  Little 
by  little,  however,  the  old  Puritan  spirit  fell  into  decay.  It 
was  still  alive  in  the  days  of  Nero  and  Tiberius,  and  that 
accounts,  Ferrero  thinks,  for  the  terrible  and  lurid  descrip- 
tions we  have  of  the  corruption  of  that  time.  The  leading 
men  are  painted  in  appalling  colors.  They  are  all  bad,  de- 
praved, and  odious.  They  are  all  drunkards,  gluttons, 
spendthrifts.  When  we  pass  on  to  the  times  of  the  Anto- 
nines,  we  hear  little  of  corruption,  although,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  Ferrero,  the  corruption  then  was  deeper  and  more 
universal  than  in  the  days  of  Nero.  Little  is  said  about 
it,  however,  because  the  Puritan  conscience  of  Rome  was 
dead. 

[  100] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  CAVALIER 

When  a  few  years  ago  Mr.  Ferrero  visited  our  country, 
he  told  us  some  things  which  we  should  never  forget.  He 
confessed  that  before  coming  he  had  held  the  opinion  of  us 
which  is  held  by  most  educated  people  in  Europe,  and 
which  is  derived  from  the  lurid  descriptions  of  our  de- 
pravity published  in  our  own  papers.  He  supposed  that 
our  country  was  a  sink  of  iniquity,  that  extravagance  and 
luxury,  and  Babylonian  display,  and  civic  corruption,  and 
demoralized  family  life  were  about  all  he  would  see.  He  was 
surprised  to  find  here  so  much  that  is  good.  He  was  led  to 
conclude  that  the  reason  we  paint  our  own  sins  in  such  vivid 
colors  is  because  the  Puritan  conscience  in  America  is 
alive  and  awake.  We  are  young  enough  yet  to  protest 
against  the  things  that  are  bad,  and  to  believe  that  the 
world  can  be  made  better.  He  said  he  did  not  believe 
that  we  are  any  worse  than  Europe,  but  that  the  Puritan 
conscience  in  Europe  is  dead,  and  that  evils  which  cause 
us  to  cry  out  against  them  in  pain,  are  in  Europe  taken  as 
natural  and  ineradicable.  He  paid  a  fine  tribute  to  New 
England,  calling  it  the  vital  nucleus  around  which  the 
rest  of  the  country  had  been  organized.  He  then  proceeded 
to  sound  a  note  of  warning.  He  said  that  the  Puritan 
religion  had  stamped  our  society  with  a  seriousness,  aus- 
terity, and  simplicity  which  was  preserved  without  effort 
so  long  as  men  were  satisfied  with  a  modest,  hard-earned 
competency,  but  now  that  wealth  has  increased,  and  lux- 
ury has  grown,  and  we  have  been  brought  into  closer  con- 
tact with  the  old  world,  the  temptation  is  to  borrow  from 
Europe  those  aspects  of  its  civilization  which  are  most 
ancient  and  most  artistic  —  even  if  less  pure  morally  — 
and  that  we  have  entered  upon  the  same  old  struggle  that 
was  fought  out  in  ancient  Rome.  The  Puritan  ideal  has 
come  to  a  hand  to  hand  struggle  against  corruption,  the 

[lOl] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

breaking  up  of  the  family,  and  against  those  vices  which 
are  bom  in  the  slums  of  a  great  city.  Just  as  the  Puri- 
tanism of  Rome  was  obliged  to  fight  against  the  influence 
of  the  older  and  more  artistic  civilization  of  the  East,  so 
must  the  United  States  fight  against  the  insidious  and 
deadening  influence  of  the  more  ancient  and  more  artistic 
civilization  of  Europe. 

The  Broadway  Tabernacle  is  a  Puritan  church.  From 
the  beginning  until  now  it  has  been  dominated  by  the  Puri- 
tan ideal.  It  stands  for  simplicity  and  seriousness  and 
cleanness.  It  is  a  radical  church.  It  strikes  great  evils 
hard.  It  faces  the  future.  It  refuses  to  be  shackled  by  the 
past.  It  believes  in  reform.  It  clings  to  the  old  only  so 
far  as  the  old  having  been  tested  has  been  proved  to  be 
good.  It  carries  in  its  eye  the  vision  of  a  better  republic 
and  a  nobler  church.  In  a  city  in  which  tens  of  thousands 
are  content  with  things  as  they  are,  who  cling  to  the  old 
simply  because  it  is  old,  the  Tabernacle  works  in  season 
and  out  of  season  to  help  make  the  world  what  it  ought  to 
be.  It  is  a  non-conformist  church.  It  does  not  bend  to  the 
conventionalities  of  society  or  to  the  opinions  of  the  times. 
It  heeds  the  apostolic  injunction:  ''  Be  not  conformed  to 
this  world,  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your 
mind  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good  and  acceptable 
and  perfect  will  of  God."  It  is  a  church  which  lays  the  em- 
phasis on  the  ethical.  It  is  no  foe  of  the  beautiful.  It 
makes  no  war  upon  art,  provided  art  is  clean.  It  is  not 
indifferent  to  pictures  and  music  and  chiseled  marble.  It 
concedes  a  legitimate  place  for  the  novel  and  for  the  drama, 
provided  they  are  clean.  But  its  supreme  emphasis  is  not 
on  the  beautiful  but  on  the  good,  not  on  the  artistic  but 
on  the  true.  In  a  city  where  thousands  read  literature  that 
is  foul,  and  where  a  section  of  the  theater  is  always  hover- 

[  I02  ] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  CAVALIER 

ing  on  the  edge  of  the  indecent,  and  where  men  and  women 
talk  much  about  art  for  art's  sake,  the  Tabernacle  lifts  up 
its  voice  for  whatsoever  things  are  honest  and  just  and 
pure.  It  glorifies  the  idea  of  duty.  It  gives  lofty  place  to 
conscience.  It  refuses  to  admit  that  life  is  a  feast  only. 
Men  are  here  for  a  purpose.  The  plan  of  their  life  has 
been  formulated  by  God.  To  each  one  a  great  work  has 
been  given.  In  a  city  in  which  the  love  of  amusement  runs 
riot,  and  thousands  live  solely  to  have  a  good  time,  counting 
it  the  end  of  existence  to  see  a  thrilling  play,  to  attend  a 
good  concert,  to  partake  of  a  rich  banquet,  to  dance  life 
away,  the  Tabernacle  speaks  constantly  of  duty,  of  charac- 
ter, of  destiny.  It  pleads  for  simplicity.  It  condemns  ex- 
travagance. It  calls  a  halt  upon  luxury.  It  summons  men 
to  seriousness.  It  denounces  frivolity.  It  insists  upon 
cleanness,  cleanness  in  politics,  cleanness  in  the  drama, 
cleanness  in  the  home,  cleanness  in  the  innermost  recesses 
of  the  heart.  In  the  metropolis  of  the  new  world  where 
the  forces  of  evil  are  insidious  and  mighty,  and  where  the 
temptations  to  shirk  the  responsibility  of  working  out 
social  problems,  to  be  indifferent  to  the  demands  of  justice 
and  truth,  to  follow  expediency  instead  of  principle,  and  to 
place  pleasure  above  duty,  are  peculiarly  subtle  and  often 
well-nigh  irresistible,  this  old  church  stands  as  a  representa- 
tive of  the  spirit  which  made  England  great,  endeavoring 
to  strengthen  the  forces  which  are  at  work  to  curb  dissolute 
and  perverse  instincts,  to  check  the  growth  of  luxury,  to 
give  a  character  of  decency  to  all  forms  of  amusement, 
and  to  keep  the  family  united  and  strong,  calling  men  and 
women  through  succeeding  generations  to  simplicity,  and 
seriousness  and  cleanness  of  living. 


[  103] 


VII 

THE    UNPOPULARITY   OF    THE    PURITAN  :     ITS 
CAUSES    AND    GLORY  ^ 

"And  overthrew  their  tables."  —  John  1  :  16 

This  is  the  Sunday  on  which  for  several  years  I  have 
thought  with  you  about  those  true  benefactors  of  humanity 
and  servants  of  God,  who  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  by  their  arduous  labors  and  stupendous  sacrifices 
turned  the  stream  of  history  into  a  new  channel  and  by 
their  unparalleled  victories  created  a  fresh  hope  in  the 
heart  of  the  world.  It  was  in  the  month  of  December,  as 
everybody  knows,  when  a  little  company  of  one  hundred 
Englishmen  landed  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts.  These 
were  the  forerunners  of  a  great  company  of  twenty  thou- 
sand Englishmen  who  came  to  New  England  within  the 
next  twenty  years  after  the  Mayflower  had  landed  her  im- 
mortal cargo  on  the  Massachusetts  sands.  And  these 
twenty  thousand  were  representatives  of  a  still  greater 
company  who  in  many  countries,  animated  by  the  same 
spirit  and  engaged  in  the  same  work,  wrought  out  greater 
blessings  for  humanity  than  any  other  company  of  mortals 
who  have  ever  moved  across  the  stage  of  the  world's  life. 
These  men  are  known  as  Puritans.  In  preceding  years  we 
have  thought  together  of  their  principles  and  achievements, 
their  character  and  temper,  their  virtues  and  limitations. 
Let  us  think  this  morning  about  their  unpopularity,  its 
causes  and  its  glory. 

1  Dec.  IS,  1907. 

[  104  ] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

That  the  Puritans  were  unpopular  is  known  to  every 
boy  and  girl  in  the  High  School.  The  very  name  is  a  nick- 
name, a  term  of  derision  and  contempt,  a  word  coined  in 
the  mint  of  obliquy,  soaked  in  vitriol,  hurled  by  slanderous 
tongues  for  the  purpose  of  making  blisters  and  inflicting 
wounds.  It  was  a  malodorous  word,  and  even  to-day  when 
heated  on  a  certain  type  of  tongue  it  gives  forth  an  un- 
savory odor.  Do  not  men  still  say  with  a  sneer  and  a  leer, 
"  He  is  a  Puritan."  To  be  puritanic  is  to  be  bigoted, 
narrow,  cruel,  pharisaical,  and  generally  contemptible. 
To  many  of  the  men  of  their  age  the  Puritans  were  dis- 
agreeable and  exasperating;  to  some  of  their  contempor- 
aries they  were  loathsome  and  abominable.  Through  their 
lifetime  they  were  hated,  detested,  execrated,  and  after  they 
were  dead  their  memory  was  held  in  abhorrence.  For 
nearly  three  centuries  they  have  been  followed  by  con- 
tinuous and  pitiless  abuse  and  vituperation,  and  in  many 
circles  of  our  modern  world  there  is  no  one  found  willing 
to  do  them  reverence.  Schools  of  historians  have  vied  with 
one  another  in  exploiting  their  blunders  and  blackening 
their  reputation,  and  literary  artists  have  painted  a  picture 
of  them  calculated  to  draw  out  a  hiss  of  contempt  from  the 
lips  of  succeeding  generations.  That  they  were  unpopular, 
repellent,  abhorrent  to  a  large  part  of  the  world  for  which 
they  labored  and  sacrificed  is  one  of  the  best-known  facts 
of  history. 

Have  you  ever  asked  yourself  what  was  the  cause  of  this 
deep-rooted  dislike,  this  widespread  and  extraordinary 
detestation?  Why  were  these  men  so  pelted  with  invec- 
tives while  they  were  still  alive,  and  why  have  they  been 
repeatedly  taken  from  their  graves,  hung  on  the  gibbet, 
and  exposed  to  the  contumely  of  generations  who  never 
saw  their  faces?    An  answer  to  this  question  is  to  be  found 

[105] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

only  by  a  careful  study  of  history.  Their  unpopularity 
was  due  to  their  attitude  to  the  world  in  the  midst  of 
which  they  lived,  and  what  that  attitude  was  it  is  worth 
our  while  to  study  and  ponder. 

What  is  the  attitude  which  a  Christian  should  take  to 
the  world  of  which  he  is  a  part?  This  is  a  question  which 
confronts  the  follower  of  Jesus  at  the  beginning  and  it 
pursues  him  to  the  end.  Saint  John  in  one  of  his  letters 
says  "  Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in 
the  world.  If  a  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father 
is  not  in  him.  For  all  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life,  is  not 
of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world."  That  the  nature  of 
man  is  evil  and  that  the  world  is  the  center  and  seat  of 
forces  inimical  to  the  will  and  purposes  of  God  is  one  of  the 
axioms  of  the  Christian  religion.  What  shall  be  the  atti- 
tude of  a  man,  consecrated  to  the  ideal  life,  to  this  evil- 
thoughted,  corrupt-hearted,  mischief- working  world?  Two 
clean-cut  and  definite  answers  have  been  given  to  this 
question,  and  each  has  worked  itself  out  into  a  specific 
type  of  character  and  a  particular  stamp  of  civilization. 

The  first  and  most  natural  answer  is,  "  Flee  from  the 
world!  Getaway!  Come  out  from  among  wicked  men. 
Touch  not  the  unclean  thing.  Are  there  evil  customs,  give 
them  up  and  hide  yourself  from  their  injurious  influence. 
Are  there  social  relations  which  have  become  contaminated, 
then  renounce  them  and  live  a  life  of  self-abnegation.  Are 
there  institutions  which  have  absorbed  the  poison  of  the 
world,  escape  from  their  defiling  touch,  and  in  a  little  world 
removed  from  the  great  world  in  which  the  devil  does  his 
work,  give  yourself  up  to  holy  contemplation  and  assidu- 
ous prayer."  Here  is  an  answer  clear,  simple,  and  con- 
sistent.    Every  mind  can  understand  it.     To  thousands 

[io6] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

it  has  had  a  fascination  too  strong  to  be  resisted.     This 
answer  is  written  large  in  the  history  of  Christianity  and 
is  known  as   Monasticism.      Under  Monasticism   men  do 
not  live  in  society,  they  live  in  monasteries.    Their  life  is 
separated  from  the  life  of  the  world.    The  sexual  instinct 
is  the  cause  of  boundless  sin  and  woe,  and  therefore  it 
should  be  crucified.    Men  take  the  vow  of  celibacy.    Prop- 
erty is  the  channel  through  which  a  horde  of  temptations 
and  burdens  come  to  the  heart,  and  therefore  property 
must  be  surrendered.  Men  take  the  vow  of  poverty.  Free- 
dom is  the  spring  from  which  flow  streams  of  disorder,  and 
therefore  it  must  be  given  up.    Men  take  the  vow  of  obedi- 
ence to  some  ecclesiastical  superior  whose  surer  judgment 
can  be  relied  upon  and  whose  more  abundant  wisdom  will 
save  the  soul  from  foolish  choices  and  fruitless  wanderings. 
Under  the  impulse  of  the  great  ambition  to  live  a  life 
acceptable  to  God,  thousands  of  men  who  caught  in  Jesus 
the  vision  of  a  life  high  above  the  sordid  level  of  the  ordi- 
nary world,  turned  their  backs  upon  society  and  gave  them- 
selves whole-heartedly  to  what  they  called  the  saving  of 
their  souls.     There  is  something  unspeakably  sublime  in 
this   great   act   of   renunciation.      Society   was   frivolous, 
crazy  for  luxury  and  pleasure.     Kings  and   nobles  were 
dissolute,  tyrannical,  godless.     Immorality  like  a  mighty 
tide  overflowed  the  world.     In   the  breaking  up  of  the 
Roman  Empire  it  seemed  as  though  the  deep  foundations 
of  the  world  were  melting,  and  that  the  universe  was  slip- 
ping back  into  the  primeval  chaos.     In  the  midst  of  the 
wild   welter   of   confusion    Monasticism   was    the   answer 
which  came  to  devout  souls  crying  out  for  peace  and  rescue. 
And  so  these  homes  for  religious  men  were  built  by  the 
thousand   throughout   the    Christian    world.     They  were 
located  sometimes  in  the  heart  of  trackless  forests,  some- 

[  107] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

times  high  up  on  some  well-nigh  inaccessible  crag,  some- 
times on  an  island  in  a  river,  sometimes  on  a  rock  sur- 
rounded by  an  angry  sea,  the  main  purpose  being  isolation, 
separation,  sequestration  from  a  world  bent  on  evil  and 
hostile  to  the  highest  interests  of  the  soul. 

We  Protestants  have  not  always  been  fair  in  our  judg- 
ment of  Monasticism.  We  have  seen  its  evils  and  have 
not  been  careful  to  search  out  its  blessings.  When  some 
of  us  think  of  a  monk  we  think  of  a  lazy  and  lecherous 
reprobate,  who,  too  indolent  to  work,  has  crawled  into  a 
warm  nest  to  be  fed  there  by  the  labor  of  other  men.  When 
we  think  of  a  monastery  we  turn  away  from  it  with  loath- 
ing as  from  a  den  of  iniquity,  a  plaCe  filled  with  things  that 
defile.  But  we  ought  to  be  careful  to  remember  that 
if  some  of  the  laziest  men  in  the  middle  ages  were  monks, 
some  of  the  most  industrious  men  were  monks;  that 
if  some  of  the  most  selfish  men  were  monks,  some  of  the 
most  self-sacrificing  and  charitable  men  were  monks;  that 
if  some  of  the  worst  men  were  in  monasteries,  some  of  the 
best  men  were  also  there;  and  that  if  monastic  life  had  its 
perils  and  corruptions,  so  also  it  had  its  opportunities  and 
victories.  Even  though  Monasticism  separated  men  from 
the  world,  it  aimed  to  keep  alive  a  feeling  for  humanity. 
The  monks  when  at  their  best  were  ever  interested  in  the 
poor  and  the  sick  and  the  defenseless.  Many  a  day  the 
poor  were  fed  at  the  monastery  gate,  and  sick  folks  were 
carried  there  that  they  might  feel  upon  their  feverish  brow 
the  cooling  touch  of  holy  hands.  In  a  wild  and  lawless 
world  the  monastery  became  a  house  of  refuge  to  which 
the  unprotected  traveler  was  glad  to  flee.  And  in  the 
monastery  the  flame  of  learning  was  never  allowed  to  go 
completely  out.  The  monks  were  lovers  of  books,  and  in 
an  age  when  the  treasures  of  bygone  ages  were  at  the  mercy 

[io8] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

of  savage  men  who  cared  nothing  for  literature  or  art,  the 
monastery  threw  its  sheltering  protection  over  the  master- 
pieces of  Greek  and  Roman  literature,  and  for  the  preser- 
vation of  these  priceless  treasures  the  world  will  be  indebted 
to  the  monks  forever.  Nor  was  the  cultivation  of  the 
virtues  and  graces  of  Christian  character  left  neglected. 
In  many  a  monastery  men  were  trained  to  work,  giving 
lessons  in  industry  to  a  world  which  had  come  to  hold  all 
labor  in  contempt,  and  setting  an  example  which  shone 
like  a  light  in  a  dark  night.  Not  only  in  the  fields  did  the 
monks  labor  daily,  but  what  endless  toil  did  they  bestow 
upon  their  books !  What  penmen  many  of  them  were, 
copying  with  patient  fingers  the  books  of  Scripture  and  the 
masterpieces  of  antiquity,  producing  works  of  art  at  which 
all  the  world  still  marvels.  It  was  in  the  monastery  that 
men  had  time  to  think,  brood,  meditate,  until  there  grew 
up  in  the  heart  an  indestructible  hope  of  immortality.  If 
this  world  was  evil,  there  was  a  world  of  light.  If  this  life 
is  stained  and  poisoned,  the  soul  shall  some  day  be  radiant 
and  free.  Here  and  there  throughout  the  middle  ages  there 
were  men  so  true  in  their  devotions  and  so  high  in  their 
aspirations  that  there  came  into  their  faces  something  of  the 
sweetness  which  we  love  to  think  of  as  belonging  to  the 
face  of  the  beloved  disciple,  and  something  of  the  great- 
ness which  belonged  to  the  Master  himself.  It  is  not  with- 
out reason  that  some  of  the  monks  have  been  canonized, 
given  a  place  among  that  shining  company  of  immortal  wit- 
nesses by  whose  sacrifices  and  achievements  we  are  chas- 
tened and  strengthened. 

Such  a  man  was  Bernard  of  Cluny.  In  his  writings  you 
get  Monasticism  at  its  best.  He  was  a  Frenchman  of  the 
twelfth  century,  a  member  of  the  Benedictine  Order.  His 
greatest  work  is  a  poem  entitled  "  De  Contemptu  Mundi," 

[  109] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

The  burden  of  the  poem  is  that  '*  This  is  a  very  evil  world." 
That  is  the  story  of  Monasticism  always,  the  world  is  evil 
and  therefore  get  away  from  it.  But  whither  shall  we 
turn?  Turn  to  the  Eternal  City  through  whose  gates  you 
will,  if  faithful,  some  day  pass.  Bernard  of  Cluny  im- 
pressed with  the  evil  of  this  world,  found  delight  in  think- 
ing of  the  world  Eternal.  The  two  loveliest  of  his  hymns 
are  included  in  our  hymn-book  and  are  sung  by  Protestants 
the  world  over.  They  point  the  soul  heavenward  with 
phrases  which  thrill  and  brace  the  heart. 

"  For  thee,  O  dear,  dear  country, 
Mine  eyes  their  vigils  keep; 
For  very  love,  beholding 
Thy  happy  name,  they  weep. 
The  mention  of  Thy  Glory 
Is  unction  to  the  breast. 
And  medicine  in  sickness, 
And  love  and  life  and  rest." 

Or  what  can  be  sweeter  than  this? 

"  Jerusalem,  the  golden, 
With  milk  and  honey  blest, 
Beneath  thy  contemplation 
Sink  heart  and  voice  oppressed : 
I  know  not,  oh,  I  know  not. 
What  joys  await  me  there. 
What  radiancy  of  glory, 
What  light  beyond  compare." 

In  those  hymns  the  inmost  soul  of  Monasticism  comes  to 
expression.  The  man  who  sings  them  has  turned  his  back 
on  the  world  with  its  works  and  pleasures  and  is  gazing 
steadfastly  into  heaven.  As  a  second  illustration  take  an 
Italian  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Francis  of  Assisi,  founder 
of  the  Order  of  Franciscans.  He  was  a  man  of  purest 
heart  and  loveliest  spirit,  and  at  the  age  of  37,  retiring  to  a 
mountain,  he  spent  the  last  seven  years  of  his  life  meditat- 

[IIO] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

ing  on  the  passion  and  death  of  Jesus.  So  concentrated 
was  his  contemplation,  so  close  his  communion  with 
the  Lord,  that  there  arose  a  rumor  which  has  lived  to  the 
present  hour,  that  in  his  hands  and  feet  could  be  seen  the 
very  prints  of  the  nails  which  held  Jesus  to  the  cross.  I 
do  not  wonder  that  he  was  canonized  two  years  after  his 
death,  and  that  for  nearly  seven  hundred  years  his  life  has 
been  commemorated  every  October  by  the  faithful  through- 
out the  Roman  Catholic  world. 

But  while  Monasticism  was  not  altogether  evil  and  pro- 
duced many  a  useful  and  saintly  man,  Monasticism  is  not 
the  correct  answer  to  the  question.  What  shall  be  the  atti- 
tude of  the  soul  to  an  evil  and  rebellious  world?  Monas- 
ticism was  not  w^ithout  its  influence  for  good,  but  it  was  not 
adequate  to  the  demands  of  a  world  such  as  ours.  It  made 
the  awful  mistake  of  casting  a  slur  on  married  life,  and  of 
teaching  men  to  think  that  men  and  women  can  be  holier 
unmarried  than  when  married.  By  withdrawing  thousands 
of  the  most  gifted  and  best  educated  men  from  family 
life,  Monasticism  impoverished  the  ideal  and  crippled  the 
influence  of  the  home.  By  segregating  men  of  principle 
and  character  in  isolated  places,  cutting  their  connections 
with  the  race  of  which  they  were  a  part,  Monasticism  left 
society  at  the  mercy  of  forces  which  tore  it  and  threw  it 
into  chaos.  By  shutting  men  up  in  the  cloister,  some  of 
them  men  of  genius  and  many  of  them  men  of  talent,  freer 
rein  was  given  to  princes  and  potentates  to  work  their 
autocratic  will,  and  larger  scope  was  allowed  to  ambitious 
ecclesiastics  to  spoil  the  church  of  which  under  Christ 
they  were  the  stewards.  Monasticism  crowded  men 
down  into  an  existence  which  was  abnormal,  and  in  every 
kingdom  of  life  disastrous  effects  began  to  make  them.selves 
manifest.     While   men   were   scourging   their   bodies   and 

[III] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

dreaming  of  heaven,  the  burdens  on  men's  backs  grew 
heavier  and  humanity  fell  into  even  deeper  depths  of  misery 
and  despair.  After  a  trial  of  Monasticism  for  a  thousand 
years  the  world  was  going  to  wreck.  An  awful  darkness 
fell  on  Europe.  Society  seemed  to  be  falling  to  pieces. 
The  world  like  a  great  ship  was  battered  by  a  storm  which 
threatened  to  submerge  it.  The  monks  looked  at  the 
tragic  situation  from  the  monastery  window,  but  it  never 
occurred  to  them  that  the  world  could  be  saved.  All  that 
they  could  do  was  to  throw  a  rope  from  the  cloister  window 
in  the  hope  that  now  and  then  some  shipwrecked  wretch 
might  take  hold  of  it  and  be  drawn  up  to  safety.  That, 
then,  is  Monasticism!  Look  at  it  —  an  answer  built  in 
granite  all  the  way  from  the  western  edge  of  Asia  to  the 
islands  which  lie  off  the  coast  of  Scotland  —  an  answer  to 
the  question,  what  shall  be  a  Christian's  attitude  to  an 
evil  world? 

But  when  the  answer  of  Monasticism  had  shown  itself 
to  be  mistaken,  an  Augustinian  monk  by  the  name  of 
Luther  came  out  to  announce  a  message  which  flooded  the 
world  with  light.  The  strokes  of  the  hammer  with  which 
he  nailed  his  theses  to  the  old  church  door  in  Wittenberg 
awakened  men  everywhere.  Once  awake,  they  began  to 
ask  themselves.  What  should  be  the  Christian  attitude 
to  a  world  which  is  filled  with  corruption?  Here  and  there 
was  a  man  who  said,  a  Christian  man  must  not  run  away 
from  evil,  he  must  fight  it.  He  must  not  hide;  let  him 
stand  out  in  the  open.  He  must  not  separate  himself  from 
men,  he  must  co-operate  with  them  in  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds.  Let  him  not  be  afraid  of  the  world,  but  let 
him  take  hold  of  it  with  both  his  hands  and  mould  it  into 
a  shape  which  shall  be  pleasing  unto  God.  If  customs  are 
bad,  let  him  change  them;    if  manners  are  evil,  let  him 

[112] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

reform  them ;  if  social  relations  have  become  demoralizing, 
let  them  be  cleansed;  if  institutions  have  grown  corrupt, 
let  the  corruption  be  purged  out;  if  the  forces  of  evil  are 
mighty,  then  let  the  children  of  light  put  on  the  whole 
armour  of  light,  and  fight,  every  man  in  his  place,  for  hu- 
manity and  God.  If  home  has  become  defiled,  then  purify 
it;  if  the  state  has  become  corrupt,  then  purify  it;  if  the 
church  has  become  stained,  then  purify  it.  Men  who 
spoke  after  this  fashion  became  known  as  Puritans,  be- 
cause they  were  always  talking  of  purity,  and  not  only 
talked  about  it  but  started  out  at  once  to  do  the  work 
which  they  saw  had  to  be  done.  Society  had  grown  frivo- 
lous and  dissolute,  and  they  took  hold  of  it;  the  state  had 
become  tyrannical  and  oppressive,  and  they  laid  hands  upon 
it;  the  church  had  grown  superstitious  and  corrupt,  and 
they  began  to  strip  her  of  her  pagan  finery  and  to  clothe 
her  in  the  robes  of  righteousness.  These  men  were  re- 
formers. Calvin  was  a  theologian,  but  he  cleaned  up 
Geneva.  Knox  was  a  preacher,  but  he  defied  and  con- 
quered a  vain  and  untruthful  Queen.  Cromwell  was  a 
farmer,  but  he  took  off  the  head  of  a  king.  The  Puritan 
is  the  antithesis  of  the  monk.  Puritanism  is  a  flat  contra- 
diction of  Monasticism.  The  monk  runs  and  hides.  The 
Puritan  stands  and  fights.  The  monk  prays  and  ministers 
to  men  who  have  been  wounded  and  crippled  by  society, 
the  Puritan  also  prays  but  works  to  change  the  structure 
and  temper  of  society  that  men  may  not  be  wounded  or 
crippled.  The  Puritan  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  went  at  once  into  politics,  determined  to  correct 
the  abuses  and  usher  in  a  new  regime.  He  went  into  com- 
merce, knowing  that  commerce  brings  wealth  and  that 
with  wealth  he  would  help  forward  the  kingdom  of  God. 
He  went  into  society,   undaunted  by  its  sneers  and  not 

[113] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

afraid  of  its  threats,  pulling  down  standards  which  were 
ancient  and  overthrowing  customs  which  had  had  the 
sanction  of  many  generations.  By  the  might  of  his  genius 
he  created  three  worlds  —  a  new  world  of  politics,  a  new 
commercial  world,  and  a  new  social  world. 

But  he  did  it  by  the  payment  of  an  awful  price.  It  was 
a  furious  battle,  and  at  evening  his  face  and  hands  were 
bleeding,  his  clothes  were  torn,  and  he  was  weary  unto 
death.  Do  you  ask  why  the  Puritan  was  unpopular,  my 
reply  has  already  been  suggested  by  my  text  —  "  He  over- 
threw their  tables."  Why  was  Jesus  unpopular?  Seek 
the  answer  in  my  text.  St.  John  says  that  at  the  very 
beginning  of  his  ministry  Jesus  was  deeply  stirred  by  what 
he  saw  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  He  saw  men  there 
selling  cattle  and  doves,  and  changing  money  for  the  pil- 
grims who  come  to  make  their  annual  contribution  to  the 
Temple  Treasury.  But  what  was  wrong  in  selling  sheep 
or  in  exchanging  money?  Nothing.  Business  is  always 
honorable  when  honorably  conducted.  It  was  not  only 
right  but  a  convenience  that  these  things  should  be  sold 
and  that  the  money  should  be  exchanged.  No  coin  bear- 
ing the  head  of  a  pagan  king  was  allowed  to  go  into  the 
Temple  Treasury.  Only  the  Jewish  half-shekel  could  go 
into  that  sacred  box.  But  the  people  in  their  homes, 
scattered  as  they  were  throughout  the  world,  were  obliged 
to  use  Roman  coinage,  and  on  coming  to  Jerusalem  it 
was  a  convenience  to  have  men  nearby  who  could  give 
them  for  their  foreign  coins  the  coins  which  the  temple 
authorities  demanded.  But  these  money-changers  had 
degenerated  into  robbers.  They  took  advantage  of  the 
ignorant  peasants,  and  charged  exorbitant  sums  for  making 
the  necessary  exchange.  They  did  it  inside  a  tem.ple  dedi- 
cated to  the  God  of  Mercy.     It  was  right  to  sell  cattle 

[114] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

and  doves,  but  it  was  wrong  to  sell  them  at  exorbitant 
prices.  These  cattle  dealers,  taking  advantage  of  the 
necessities  of  the  pilgrims,  asked  many  times  too  much 
for  their  animals,  and  even  the  sellers  of  doves,  whose  busi- 
ness it  was  to  supply  the  needs  of  the  very  poor,  driven  on 
by  the  same  mercenary  spirit,  also  became  robbers,  de- 
manding from  the  poor  peasants  sums  which  it  was  not 
right  they  should  pay.  And  the  great  soul  of  Jesus  burned 
like  a  furnace  as  he  looked  on  the  unspeakable  outrage. 
How  long  it  had  been  going  on  we  do  not  know.  It  had  no 
doubt  grown  up  gradually  as  all  abuses  do,  and  men  had 
grown  accustomed  to  it  and  conscience  had  fallen  asleep 
in  the  presence  of  it.  It  was  within  the  province  of  any 
Jew  to  put  an  end  to  such  a  scandal,  but  no  one  cared  to 
do  it.  What  others  refused  to  do  the  Son  of  God  did.  He 
made  a  whip.  He  drove  the  cattle  out.  He  turned  over 
the  boxes  which  held  the  money.  He  overthrew  the  tables. 
No  such  scene  had  ever  been  witnessed  within  the  memory 
of  man  like  unto  the  scene  which  was  now  presented.  You 
cannot  imagine  the  bustle  and  confusion,  the  surprise  and 
consternation.  The  bellowing  cattle,  the  bleating  sheep, 
the  shouting,  cursing  men,  the  precious  coins  rolling  under 
the  feet  of  the  crowd,  the  hearts  blazing  and  flashing  with 
indignation,  who  has  words  with  which  to  paint  the  thrilling 
picture?  John  says  that  it  was  in  that  lurid  hour  Jesus 
caught  a  vision  of  the  cross.  When  the  angry  crowd 
gathered  round  him,  asking  him  for  a  sign,  he  said,  "  De- 
stroy this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up." 
That  is  his  first  intimation  that  he  must  die.  It  all  flashed 
on  him  at  the  instant  in  which  he  overturned  the  tables. 
By  upsetting  the  tables  he  kindled  a  fire  which  burned  with 
an  energy  which  could  not  be  quenched.  By  interfering 
with  vested  interests  he  set  every  man  of  property  against 

[115] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

him.  It  all  seemed  so  impertinent,  impudent,  uncalled  for, 
this  interference  of  a  teacher  of  religion  with  the  practical 
affairs  of  men.  There  were  monks  all  along  the  desert 
shore  of  the  Dead  Sea.  These  men  prayed  and  sang  and 
worshipped  God  continually.  They  were  beloved  and 
honored  by  all  the  people.  The  world  always  likes  religious 
men  who  attend  to  their  own  business  and  do  not  inter- 
fere with  its  aims  and  doings. 

Jesus  by  the  overturning  of  the  tables  made  his  suffering 
and  his  crucifixion  sure.  And  so  it  was  with  the  Puritan. 
He  put  his  hand  upon  the  tables,  he  overturned  them,  he 
interfered  with  vested  interests,  he  put  an  end  to  age-long 
abuses,  he  trampled  upon  the  golden  coins  of  men.  What 
could  the  world  do  but  hate  him?  The  disciple  must  be 
as  his  Master,  and  the  servant  as  his  Lord!  If  men  called 
the  Perfect  Man  Beelzebub,  do  not  marvel  at  the  list  of 
epithets  which  they  hurl  at  his  imperfect  followers.  In 
the  great  temple  of  society  frivolous  and  selfish  men  and 
women  had  set  up  their  tables  piled  high  with  absurd  cus- 
toms, foolish  fashions,  demoralizing  practices,  and  the 
Puritan,  burning  with  indignation  at  the  profanation  of 
human  life,  overthrew  the  tables  and  sent  the  accursed 
conventionalities  rolling  in  the  dust.  He  got  hated  for 
his  trouble.  In  the  temple  of  state,  cruel  and  despotic  kings 
had  set  up  their  tables  and  covered  them  over  with  prec- 
edents and  arguments  constructed  by  hireling  lawyers, 
proving  that  kings  have  a  divine  right  to  govern  wrong 
and  that  under  no  circumstances  have  subjects  a  right  to 
resist  their  ruler,  and  the  Puritan  overthrew  the  tables 
and  sent  the  lying  legal  documents  rolling  under  the  feet 
of  men.  Venomous  vituperation  was  his  reward.  Am- 
bitious and  worldly  men  had  set  up  their  tables  in  the 
temple  of   religion   and   had   weighted    them   down   with 

[ii6] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

interpretations  and  doctrines  and  ceremonies  which  made 
of  no  effect  the  law  of  God  and  corrupted  the  simple  religion 
of  the  Son  of  Man  into  a  superstition  and  a  burden,  and  the 
Puritan,  with  hands  hot  with  indignation,  overthrew  the 
tables  and  sent  the  claims  and  works  of  priestcraft  rolling 
on  the  ground.  Murderous,  unrelenting  detestation  was 
the  Puritan's  compensation.  Be  not  surprised  that  the 
Puritan  was  unpopular.  He  was  a  reformer,  and  when  have 
reformers  ever  been  popular  among  the  people  whose  wicked 
thoughts  they  have  rebuked  and  whose  sinful  ways  they 
have  resisted?  The  Puritan  interfered  with  men's  plea- 
sures, he  intruded  into  realms  into  which  religious  men  had 
never  gone,  he  pushed  himself  into  circles  in  which  kings 
and  pri;ices  had  reigned  supreme,  he  threw  himself  across 
the  track  of  the  world's  ambitions  and  endeavors,  and  that 
is  why  he  has  hung  on  the  gibbet  for  well-nigh  three  hun- 
dred years.  He  saved  others  but  himself  he  could  not  save. 
But  some  one  at  this  point  interrupts  me  with  the 
remark  that  the  Puritans  were  too  severe,  entirely  too 
grave  and  sober.  That  is  because  they  were  soldiers  in  the 
midst  of  a  tremendous  battle.  I  have  noticed  that  no 
painter  who  has  attempted  to  paint  Pickett's  charge  at 
Gettysburg  has  painted  a  smile  on  the  face  of  a  single 
soldier.  War  is  grim  and  earnest  work,  and  the  only  smile 
that  is  seen  on  the  battlefield  is  the  smile  that  flits  across 
the  face  of  the  wounded  man,  who,  in  the  moment  of 
death,  thinks  how  glorious  it  is  to  die  for  one's  country. 
But  some  one  says,  the  Puritan  made  mistakes.  So  he 
did,  because  he  was  a  man  of  action.  Men  of  action  al- 
ways commit  blunders.  But  no  matter  how  many  blunders 
a  man  of  action  is  guilty  of,  he  is  a  nobler  and  more  useful 
man  than  he  who  attempts  to  do  nothing.  Simeon  Stylites 
on  his  lofty  pillar  outside  of  the  walls  of  Antioch  never 

[117] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

committed  any  social  or  political  blunders.  For  thirty 
years  he  lived  upon  his  pillar,  spending  hours  every  day 
with  his  arms  extended  so  that  his  body  might  stand  out 
like  a  cross  against  the  sky.  Great  crowds  of  admiring 
people  gathered  daily  to  see  the  holy  man  and  to  marvel 
at  his  unparalleled  devotion.  He  was  guilty  of  no  social 
blunders  because  he  was  not  in  society.  He  made  no 
political  mistakes  because  he  held  aloof  from  politics.  But 
his  whole  life  was  a  stupid  and  disgusting  and  unpardonable 
blunder.  The  Puritan  was  not  a  perfect  man.  He  had  the 
defects  of  his  qualities,  and  these  became  conspicuous  and 
glaring  because  he  acted  in  a  wide  and  open  field.  A  man 
with  an  unruly  temper  who  stays  at  home  may  by  his 
temper  make  things  disagreeable  for  his  wife  and  children, 
but  his  ugliness  will  not  work  havoc  with  interests  outside 
his  own  domestic  circle. 

But  if  that  same  man  comes  out  of  his  seclusion  and  at- 
tempts to  deal  with  large  affairs  of  church  and  state,  then 
his  temperamental  infirmities,  having  a  large  sphere  in 
which  to  work,  may  do  mischief  in  divers  directions  and 
affect  the  comfort  of  many  homes.  The  Puritan  exposed 
himself  to  criticism  by  jumping  into  the  arena  and  wrest- 
ling with  the  most  complicated  problems  of  earthly  life, 
and  if  at  many  points  he  blundered,  do  not  forget  his 
numberless  successes  and  immortal  triumphs. 

Some  one  says  that  the  Puritan  was  too  zealous.  His 
manner  was  rough  and  not  to  be  commended.  The  criticism 
is  one  to  which  every  reformer  is  exposed.  Men  who  saw 
Jesus  in  the  act  of  cleansing  the  temple  were  scandalized 
by  his  action.  He  made  a  whip.  When  have  men  liked 
a  whip?  He  poured  out  money  on  the  ground.  What  a 
waste!    He  overthrew  the  tables.    What  needless  violence! 

He  said  in  a  tone  which  frightened,  "  Take  these  things 

[n8] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

hence!  "  Why  did  he  not  go  at  this  work  with  the  poise 
and  quietness  of  a  gentleman?  Why  did  he  not  in  courteous 
tones  invite  the  cattle-dealers  to  pass  out?  Why  did  he 
not  give  the  men  time  to  gather  up  their  money,  and  why 
instead  of  turning  the  tables  upside  down  did  he  not  offer 
to  help  carry  them  out  and  set  them  up  in  a  place  both  con- 
venient and  proper.  The  manner  of  Jesus  was  criticised 
by  his  contemporaries.  It  has  been  criticised  continuously 
to  the  present  time.  And  so  also  many  men  cannot  under- 
stand the  fury  of  the  Puritans.  Why  did  they  pull  down 
the  monasteries,  and  tear  the  priests'  robes  to  pieces,  and 
trample  on  sacred  ceremonies,  and  say  in  a  savage  tone  to 
Cardinals  and  Princes,  "  Take  these  things  hence!  "  If 
this  is  a  mystery  to  you  it  is  because  you  lack  the  Puritan 
heart  and  the  Puritan  fire.  You  can  never  understand  the 
Puritan  manner  unless  you  are  ablaze  with  the  Puritan 
zeal.  Do  you  catch  fire  at  the  sight  of  injustice?  Do  you 
flame  with  indignation  when  you  see  the  weak  and  helpless 
abused?  Do  you  love  God  and  humanity  enough  to  quiver 
and  thrill  in  the  presence  of  men  who,  haters  of  God  and 
enemies  of  man,  trample  down  with  their  cruel  feet  interests 
which  are  dear  to  all  hearts  which  have  not  lost  out  of 
them  the  spark  which  comes  from  heaven?  How  can  you 
hope  to  sympathize  with  the  Puritan  unless  you  hate 
tyranny  and  despise  religious  mummery  and  loathe  the 
things  which  hurt  and  slay?  You  yourself  must  have  the 
soul  of  the  Puritan  if  your  heart  is  to  go  out  to  him  with 
a  full  tide  of  affection. 

You  say  that  you  cannot  love  him,  that  you  cannot  even 
like  him,  because  he  is  disagreeable  to  get  on  with  and  al- 
together too  strenuous.  Whom  do  you  like?  You  like  a 
monk,  a  mild-eyed,  sweet-faced  dreamer,  whose  soft  hands 
have  no  knack  for  overthrowing  tables!    Hang  these  three 

[119] 


FOREFATHERS^  DAY  SERMONS 

portraits  on  your  right,  Benedict,  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  and 
Francis  of  Assisi,  and  these  three  portraits  on  your  left, 
Calvin,  Knox  and  Cromwell.  What  a  difference  in  the  two 
types  of  faces.  The  eyes  of  the  monks  are  soft,  the  expres- 
sion of  their  face  is  sweet,  the  faces  of  the  Puritans  look 
as  though  they  were  made  of  iron.  Why  this  difference? 
The  monks  were  dreamers,  the  Puritans  were  men  of 
action.  The  monks  were  shepherds  in  green  pastures 
where  the  waters  were  very  still.  The  Puritans  were 
soldiers  on  a  field  swept  by  black  tempests  from  hell. 
You  like  the  monks  and  so  do  I,  but  these  men  with  the 
iron  faces  bring  from  my  heart  a  deeper  reverence  and  from 
my  soul  a  fuller  homage.  Down  in  the  dust  I  prostrate 
myself  before  them,  for  by  their  bloody  sweat  the  things 
which  men  now  count  dearest  were  made  ours  forevermore. 
To  come  into  closer  sympathy  with  the  Puritan  is  one  of 
the  ways  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  Church.  What  is  the  matter  with  present  day 
Christianity?  We  have  too  many  monks.  We  Protest- 
ants do  not  believe  in  monks,  but  we  have  been  diligent 
in  cultivating  them.  The  soul  of  Monasticism  does  not  lie 
in  holy  buildings  or  strange  ecclesiastical  garbs,  but  in  a 
certain  temper  and  attitude,  and  this  temper  and  attitude 
are  not  peculiar  to  Roman  Catholicism  but  come  up  per- 
ennially out  of  the  heart  of  man.  Monasticism  changes  its 
form  from  century  to  century,  but  the  essence  of  it  remains 
forever  the  same.  We  smile  at  the  quaint  Monasticism  of 
the  medieval  times  and  imagine  that  all  Monasticism  has 
vanished,  whereas  Protestantism  in  the  twentieth  century 
is  swarming  with  monks,  and  how  to  convert  them  into 
Puritans  is  the  outstanding  problem  of  modern  Chris- 
tianity. The  Protestant  monk  does  not  take  any  vows. 
He  repudiates  the  vows  of  celibacy,  poverty  and  obedience. 

[  I20  ] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

He  believes  in  marrying,  he  likes  to  make  money,  he  obeys 
no  man  but  does  as  he  pleases.  But  a  man  can  marry  and 
make  a  fortune  and  do  as  he  will  and  still  be  a  monk.  He 
may  separate  himself  from  the  world  which  he  was  sent 
to  help  redeem.  He  may  hold  aloof  from  social  reform, 
and  keep  out  of  politics,  and  never  lift  his  finger  to  lighten 
the  burdens  of  the  men  who  are  oppressed.  Through  the 
day  he  may  shut  himself  in  behind  the  solid  walls  of  his 
office  or  place  of  business,  and  at  night  he  may  seclude 
himself  in  the  privacy  of  his  home,  revelling  in  the  luxury 
of  reading  his  magazine  and  books,  having  the  same  sort 
of  good  time  which  the  medieval  monk  had  in  his  cloister 
when  far  away  from  the  tumult  of  the  world  and  its  fever, 
he  spent  the  long  hours  in  poring  over  the  pages  of  poets 
and  philosophers,  refreshing  his  soul  by  visions  and  fancies, 
undisturbed  by  the  entanglements  and  exasperations  of  a 
world  w^hich  had  gone  wrong  and  which  was  crying  night 
and  day  for  some  one  to  set  it  right.  Our  modern  monk  is 
a  courteous  and  agreeable  gentleman.  He  cultivates  the 
family  virtues.  He  is  temperate,  honorable,  kind.  He 
does  not  like  reform  movements,  for  they  are  always  noisy 
and  stir  up  trouble.  He  loathes  politics,  for  politics,  you 
know,  are  dirty.  But  he  is  a  good  man.  He  says  his  prayers, 
and  now  and  then  he  sings  "  Jerusalem  the  Golden."  He 
is  a  first-class  modern  monk.  And  this  is  the  type  of 
Christians  which  have  been  too  common  in  our  world. 
The  day  for  the  Puritan  is  upon  us.  There  are  going  to 
be  lively  times  in  this  country  during  the  next  thirty  years. 
We  are  going  to  clean  up  a  lot  of  things  and  make  a  host  of 
crooked  things  straight.  We  are  going  to  have  a  new  type  of 
preacher,  for  the  seminaries  are  sending  out  men  awake 
to  the  social  problem,  and  we  are  going  to  have  a  new  type 
of  layman,  men  who  are  not  afraid  to  overthrow  the  tables 

[   121  ] 


FOREFATHERS^  DAY  SERMONS 

of  the  miscreants  who  by  their  practices  defile  the  temple 
of  human  life.  Christianity  is  going  to  be  more  virile, 
aggressive,  radical.  We  have  been  monkish  in  our  dealing 
with  wickedness.  We  have  not  worked  to  transform  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  How 
have  we  dealt  with  the  saloon?  It  is  a  fountain  sending 
out  streams  of  woe  and  misery  and  death,  and  we  have 
stood  round  it  like  so  many  monks  picking  up  the  drunkard, 
caring  for  his  wife  and  children,  striving  to  repair  the  awful 
damage,  but  seldom  thinking  of  so  bold  a  thing  as  over- 
throwing the  tables.  But  that  is  what  the  new  type  of 
Christian  is  going  to  do.  The  good  work  has  begun  already. 
The  most  remarkable  anti-saloon  movement  which  this 
country  has  ever  known  is  now  in  progress  in  the  South 
and  West.  Men  stand  bewildered  asking,  "  Why  is  this? 
How  do  you  explain  this  rising  tide?  "  The  answer  is  that 
men  are  increasingly  interested  in  the  social  problem.  In- 
stead of  building  monasteries  on  the  top  of  mountains  we 
are  establishing  social  settlements  in  the  slums.  A  host  of 
workers  are  toiling  to  lift  humanity  up,  and  the  cry  that 
comes  up  from  the  men  who  are  working  down  in  the 
ooze  and  the  slime  is,  "  We  have  found  a  serpent  down 
here  —  Alcohol  —  and  we  can  make  no  progress  until  the 
serpent  is  cast  out!  "  Moreover  the  saloon  has  been  be- 
coming more  and  more  a  social  nuisance,  oftentimes  a 
menace  and  a  curse.  In  the  smaller  towns  it  is  the  loung- 
ing place  of  loafers  and  foul-mouthed  men  and  boys,  while 
in  the  city  it  has  become  in  many  cases  the  rendezvous 
of  thugs  and  cutthroats  and  harlots.  The  monk  way  of 
dealing  with  the  liquor  traffic  is  to  bind  up  the  wounds 
which  it  makes.  The  way  of  the  Puritan  is  simply  to  over- 
throw the  tables  and  say  to  the  men  who  for  the  sake  of 
gain  send  men  to  hell,  "  Take  these  things  hence."    That 

[  122  ] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

type  of  Christian  is  the  type  now  needed,  and  he  is  sure 
to  come. 

Sunday  desecration  is  another  evil  against  which  good 
men  must  be  on  their  guard.  Like  all  evils  its  approach 
is  stealthy  and  its  growth  is  gradual.  The  desecration  of 
the  Temple  in  Jerusalem  did  not  spring  up  full  statured  in 
a  day.  The  court  of  the  Gentiles  was  a  spacious  place  hav- 
ing an  area  of  fourteen  acres.  Round  its  four  sides  there 
ran  a  colonnade  with  four  rows  of  marble  pillars  and  a 
roof  of  costly  cedar.  Many  things  were  needed  in  the 
sacrifices  of  the  temple  and  what  place  more  convenient 
for  the  buying  of  them  than  this  great,  spacious  court? 
One  day,  I  imagine,  a  man  stepped  inside  with  a  cage  of 
pigeons.  A  bird  so  small  and  sweet  voiced  as  a  dove  could 
not  hurt  the  sacred  place!  By  and  by  a  man  with  a  sheep 
to  sell  led  it  in.  A  sheep  is  the  most  innocent  of  all  animals. 
No  harm  could  come  to  God  or  man  from  the  presence  of 
a  sheep.  Still  later  the  man  with  a  steer  to  sell  brought 
him  in.  "  I  have  as  much  right  here  as  you  have,"  he  said 
to  the  man  with  the  sheep  and  the  man  with  the  pigeons, 
and  soon  there  were  a  dozen  steers.  That  is  the  way  it 
all  happened.  The  abuse  grew  up  so  gradually  that  nobody 
observed  it,  and  before  men  knew  it  the  sacredness  of  the 
place  was  gone.  Just  so  does  the  desecration  of  the  Day  of 
Rest  take  place  in  great  cities.  One  man  steps  into  the 
Temple  of  Rest,  saying:  "  Let  me  sing  you  a  little  song." 
His  voice  is  sweet  and  the  song  is  pretty,  and  what  is  so 
beautiful  and  innocent  as  a  song?  And  a  man  outside  hear- 
ing this  song  inside  the  temple  says,  "  I  think  I'll  come  in 
and  sing,  too."  His  voice  is  harsh  and  his  song  is  a  different 
kind  of  song,  but  in  he  comes,  and  who  is  wise  enough  to 
draw  the  line  and  say  this  song  is  proper,  that  song  will 
never  do?    And  while  these  two  men  are  singing,  another 

[  123  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

man  who  cannot  sing  at  all  and  who  can  only  use  his  feet 
decides  that  he  too  has  a  right  to  exercise  his  gifts  inside  the 
temple,  and  in  he  comes  and  after  him  a  dozen  others  and 
after  them  a  hundred  others,  some  bringing  doves,  some 
sheep,  some  steers,  until  the  whole  day  is  trampled  into 
sordidness  and  one  of  the  most  precious  of  all  the  privileges 
of  man  has  been  wrested  from  him.  The  monk  stands  by 
and  does  nothing.  He  is  busy  with  his  prayers.  What  is 
needed  is  the  Puritan,  the  man  who  with  the  strength 
which  was  in  the  hands  of  Jesus  will  overthrow  the  tables. 

Let  no  one  deceive  you  on  this  question  of  Sunday  dese- 
cration. Be  not  surprised  if  many  papers  befog  the  moral 
issue.  Not  all  newspaper  managers  are  noted  for  their 
fondness  for  anything  that  makes  for  righteousness.  Many 
men  are  determined  to  make  money  at  all  hazards  and  at 
all  costs,  seven  days  in  the  week,  no  matter  how  many 
high  interests  of  life  are  impaired  or  how  many  human 
beings  are  reduced  to  slaves.  As  long  as  there  is  one  man 
in  the  community  obliged  to  work  seven  days  in  the  week 
so  long  will  the  Christian  church  have  a  wrong  to  redress 
and  a  soul  to  set  free.  If  men  do  not  blaze  with  indignation 
at  the  desecration  of  the  Day  of  Rest,  it  is  because  they 
do  not  feel  the  awful  and  unspeakable  tragedy  of  dooming 
human  beings  to  the  galling  and  soul-destroying  slavery 
of  toil  which  is  unbroken.  The  Day  of  Rest  must  be 
cleansed  and  there  will  come,  if  not  to-morrow,  then  some- 
time, a  type  of  Christian  who  will  overthrow  the  tables 
and  drive  the  desecrators  out. 

How  has  the  church  up  to  date  dealt  with  war?  It  has 
played  the  part  of  a  monk.  It  has  mitigated  the  horrors 
of  war.  It  has  established  Red  Cross  Societies  and  other 
kind-hearted  agencies  for  relieving  suffering  and  making 
the  dying  hour  less  horrible.     And  while  the  monk  has 

[  124] 


THE  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  PURITAN 

been  busy  devising  ways  of  reducing  the  horrors  of  war 
other  men  have  been  just  as  busy  in  building  new  cruisers 
and  battleships  and  torpedo  boats,  swallowing  up  the 
treasure  of  the  nations,  and  keeping  alive  in  men's  hearts 
the  thought  of  destruction  and  slaughter.  Militarism  is 
having  a  great  day.  It  has  deceived  the  very  elect.  It 
cries  for  millions  and  they  are  given,  and  then  it  cries  for 
millions  more  and  gets  them.  But  some  day  there  will 
come  a  type  of  Christian  in  England,  France,  Germany  and 
America  who  will  overthrow  the  tables  of  these  mono- 
maniacs who  are  always  thinking  and  planning  and  getting 
ready  for  war,  and  will  pour  out  the  money  which  is  now 
wasted  in  the  enginery  of  slaughter  into  hospitals  and 
schools  and  art  galleries  and  other  institutions  which  work 
for  the  uplifting  and  happiness  of  mankind.  The  church 
will  some  day  overthrow  the  military  tables. 

But  how  can  men  overturn  these  tables  or  any  others 
without  stirring  up  the  animosities  of  the  men  they  inter- 
fere with,  and  bringing  down  on  their  heads  the  male- 
dictions of  all  who  are  content  with  things  as  they  are? 
Let  a  man  in  many  parts  of  this  country  oppose  the  saloon 
in  any  effective  way  and  he  will  meet  with  a  storm  of 
opposition  and  possibly  be  obliged  to  give  up  his  life.  Again 
and  again  within  the  last  few  years  men  who  have  over- 
turned the  tables  of  the  liquor  sellers  have  been  shot  down 
in  the  street  or  murdered  in  their  beds.  Let  a  man  take 
hold  of  any  of  the  tables  owned  by  men  who  coin  money 
by  the  desecration  of  the  Day  of  Rest,  and  he  will  be 
laughed  at  by  all  of  the  sweet-faced  monks  of  the  com- 
munity and  hated  by  all  with  whose  vested  interests  he  has 
interfered.  Let  him  stand  up  against  the  advocates  of 
militarism  tearing  to  tatters  their  arguments  and  blocking 
their  way  to  still  more  colossal  follies  and  madnesses,  and 

[125] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

he  will  be  smiled  at  as  an  impracticable  ignoramus  who 
does  not  understand  the  world  in  which  he  is  living.  How 
can  a  man  in  any  land,  at  any  time,  overturn  the  tables, 
and  still  be  popular?  It  is  impossible.  If  a  man  is  brave 
and  true  enough  to  do  the  Puritan's  work  let  him  expect 
to  meet  the  Puritan's  fate,  but  let  him  not  forget  that  he 
shall  from  the  hand  of  God  receive  the  Puritan's  unfading 
crown. 


[126] 


VIII 

THE  STRENGTH  AND   WEAKNESS  OF 
PURITANISM^ 

AS    ILLUSTRATED    BY    THE    LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

JOHN    KNOX 

"/  know  thy  works,  and  charity,  and  service,  atid  faith,  and  thy  pa- 
tience, and  thy  works;  and  the  last  to  be  more  than  the  first.  Notwith- 
standing I  have  a  few  things  against  thee^  —  Rev.  II :  19-20. 

That  is  a  wonderful  picture  with  which  the  Book  of  the 
Revelation  opens.  Christendom  stands  before  the  throne 
of  God  for  judgment.  Seven  churches  selected  from  the 
mass  of  churches  stand  as  the  representatives  of  Christ's 
followers  throughout  the  world,  in  the  presence  of  the  King 
to  hear  his  words  of  approbation  and  of  censure.  To  each 
one  of  them  he  utters  words  of  praise:  "  I  know  you,"  he 
exclaims,  "  your  history  and  your  condition.  I  know  your 
defeats  and  victories,  your  temptations  and  your  burdens, 
all  the  sacrifices  which  you  have  made  in  my  name  and  for 
my  glory.  I  know  your  faith  and  hope  and  love,  and  all 
the  graces  which  have  blossomed  in  the  garden  of  your  soul." 
Thus  do  the  words  of  praise  run  on,  and  then  all  at  once 
there  comes  a  change.  The  tide  of  praise  is  checked.  A 
thrilling  silence  falls,  and  then  the  King  goes  on  to  say: 
"  Nevertheless  I  have  a  few  things  against  thee."  Every 
church  has  done  deeds  worthy  of  commendation,  and  every 
church  also  brings  down  upon  itself  the  censure  of  the  Judge. 
"  There  is  none  righteous,  no  not  one." 

This  picture  is  perennially  pathetic  because  it  repre- 
sents an  age-long  experience.     Walk  down   the  Christian 

»  Dec.  17,  1905. 

[  127] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

centuries  and  see  the  mighty  movements  which,  inspired 
by  the  Eternal  Spirit,  have  moved  forward  in  the  name  of 
Christ  for  the  extension  of  his  kingdom.  Wherever  the 
Christian  church  has  gone  it  has  planted  seeds  in  the  hearts 
of  men  which  have  brought  forth  harvests  oftentimes  a  hun- 
dred fold.  And  to  every  movement  inspired  by  Christ 
in  all  the  Christian  centuries  words  of  commendation  are 
spoken  by  the  King.  We  can  hear  him  saying:  "  I  know 
your  origin  and  your  history,  your  struggles  and  your 
triumphs.  I  have  counted  all  your  sacrifices,  and  I  know 
what  you  have  suffered  in  my  name.  But  nevertheless  I 
have  a  few  things  against  thee!  "  There  is  none  righteous, 
no  not  one. 

And  were  you  to  picture  the  Christian  world  to-day,  you 
would  be  obliged  to  picture  it  as  the  apostle  painted  it 
nineteen  centuries  ago.  We  can  see  in  our  imagination  the 
great  families  of  the  Church  of  God  standing  before 
the  throne.  Each  one  of  them  comes  up  freighted  with  the 
trophies  of  a  thousand  battlefields,  wearing  the  crowns  of 
countless  victories,  proud  of  traditions  descended  through 
blessed  years,  and  thankful  for  sacred  memories  of  the 
saints.  And  to  each  and  every  branch  of  the  church  uni- 
versal the  King  speaks  high  words  of  praise.  "  I  know 
you,  one  and  all,"  he  says.  "  I  know  your  ambitions  and 
your  conquests,  your  virtues  and  your  graces,  and  all  the 
lovely  things  which  you  have  accomplished  in  my  name 
and  for  my  glory.  Nevertheless  I  have  a  few  things  against 
you."  To  each  and  every  one  is  given  a  word  of  com- 
mendation, upon  each  and  every  one  a  condemnation  falls. 
There  is  a  blemish  on  every  forehead,  a  stain  on  every  robe. 
There  is  none  righteous,  no  not  one. 

This  is  Forefathers'  Sunday,  the  Sunday  that  begins 
the  week  in  which  occurs  the  anniversary  of  the  Landing 

[128] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock.  For  many  years  it  has 
been  my  custom  on  this  Sunday  to  speak  of  some  phase  of 
the  Puritan  character  and  work,  and  having  spoken  to 
you  in  other  years  about  the  virtues  and  the  graces  of  the 
Puritan  spirit,  let  me  this  morning  call  your  attention  to 
a  few  of  its  defects  and  limitations.  My  theme  is  the 
strength  and  weakness  of  Puritanism;  and  as  this  is 
the  four-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  one  of  the 
three  greatest  men  of  the  Reformation  era,  I  want  to 
light  up  my  sermon  by  illustrations  taken  from  the  life 
and  character  of  the  greatest  of  all  Scotchmen,  John  Knox. 
The  use  of  John  Knox,  by  way  of  illustration,  will  not  be 
without  advantage  to  us  because  it  will  call  up  to  our  mind 
the  world  of  heroes  and  mighty  deeds  which  existed  be- 
fore the  Mayflower  sailed.  Language  has  sometimes  been 
used  which  would  almost  intimate  that  modern  history 
began  with  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  that  the  Pilgrims  were 
the  pioneers  in  that  great  movement  which  has  filled  the 
world  with  glory.  It  is  wholesome  for  us  to  remind  our- 
selves that  the  Pilgrims  were  not  the  creators  of  the  move- 
ment but  the  products  of  it,  and  that  they  came  upon  the 
stage  of  history  in  the  afternoon  of  an  illustrious  day.  We 
shall  understand  them  all  the  better  and  appreciate  them  all 
the  more  if  we  first  enter  fully  into  the  spirit  of  those  intrepid 
servants  of  the  Lord  who,  like  an  army  of  John  the  Baptists, 
cried  in  the  wilderness  and  prepared  the  way.  1620  sounds 
like  a  far  off  date,  but  how  comparatively  recent  it  is  when 
compared  with  1505,  the  traditional  date  of  John  Knox's 
birth.  John  Knox  lived  a  long  life,  and  did  his  work  and 
was  in  his  grave  almost  ten  years  before  the  first  Congre- 
gational church  was  organized.  He  was  in  his  grave  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  little  church  was  organ- 
ized in  Scrooby,  out  of  which  Bradford  and  Brewster  came. 

[129] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

He  had  been  dead  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  Pil- 
grims left  Scrooby  for  Holland,  and  almost  fifty  years 
elapsed  after  his  death  before  the  Pilgrims  turned  the  prow 
of  the  Mayflower  toward  the  West.  As  long  a  period  lies 
between  the  cradle  in  Haddington  in  which  the  Scotch 
baby  Knox  was  rocked,  and  the  sailing  of  the  Mayflower  as 
lies  between  George  Washington  and  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
What  a  world  of  effort  and  achievement  and  of  progress  lies 
between  our  first  President  and  our  last.  An  equally  great 
world  of  struggle  and  achievement  lies  between  the  birth 
of  the  Scotch  Reformer  and  the  sailing  of  the  English 
Pilgrims.  The  winds  that  filled  the  May  flower' s  sails  had 
been  set  loose  by  the  magic  hand  of  heroes  who  were  in  their 
graves  when  the  Mayflower  sailed.  I  would  not  take  any 
of  the  glory  from  the  Pilgrims'  faces,  but  it  is  only  fair  to 
remember  that  not  a  little  of  this  luster  is  the  reflected 
light  from  the  faces  of  those  tall  statured  saints  of  God  who 
in  the  sixteenth  century  broke  the  power  of  Rome  and 
turned  the  stream  of  history  into  a  new  channel.  Nor 
did  the  heroes  of  the  sixteenth  century  do  their  work  with- 
out first  receiving  inspiration  from  those  who  went  before 
them.  They  braced  their  hearts  and  increased  their 
strength  by  drinking  at  the  fountains  which  had  been 
opened  high  up  in  the  hills  of  God  by  WyclifTe,  Huss  and 
Savonarola. 

We  have  heard  much  of  the  Puritan's  idiosyncrasies  and 
foibles,  of  his  blemishes  and  limitations,  and  whenever 
such  things  are  mentioned  the  mind  runs  naturally  to  the 
men  of  the  English  commonwealth  and  to  the  men  of  the 
New  England  theocracy  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  But  these  seventeenth  century  men  were  not  a 
whit  more  peculiar  nor  was  their  temper  any  more  defec- 
tive than  was  the  temper  of  the  Puritans  who  lived  a  hun- 

[  130] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

dred  years  before  these  were  born.  From  the  very  beginning 
there  were  certain  traits  in  the  Puritan  character  which 
we  must  confess  to  be  blemishes,  and  there  were  certain 
limitations  in  the  Puritan  mind  and  heart  by  which  their 
efforts  were  handicapped  and  their  influence  lamentably 
curtailed.  It  may  be  helpful  to  consider  briefly  a  few  of 
these  defects  and  limitations. 

First  of  all  must  be  mentioned  a  certain  severity  of  dis- 
position, a  tendency  to  hardness  and  sternness  of  heart. 
Sometimes  the  sternness  was  accompanied  with  somber- 
ness,  and  the  somberness  not  infrequently  deepened  into 
gloom.  Much  can  be  said,  of  course,  on  the  other  side. 
The  Puritans  were  not  so  austere  and  gloomy  as  they  have 
sometimes  been  painted.  Life  was  much  more  pleasant 
to  them  than  has  been  in  many  quarters  imagined.  John 
Knox,  for  instance,  was  severe,  and  yet  the  Scotchman  had 
a  tender  heart,  so  tender  that  he  could  not  punish  his  sons 
without  shedding  tears.  And  along  with  this  tenderness 
there  existed  an  overflowing  humor  which  flashes  out  again 
and  again  in  his  History  of  the  Reformation,  and  which 
illuminated  his  conversation  with  his  friends  down  to  the 
last  week  of  his  life.  But  after  all  has  been  said  concerning 
the  Puritan's  sunniness  and  humor  which  can  be  legiti- 
mately said,  the  fact  remains  that  the  Puritan  temper 
from  first  to  last  was  sober,  austere  and  stern.  Whether 
you  read  the  life  of  William  the  Silent  or  of  John  Calvin, 
of  Coligny  or  of  Cromwell  or  of  John  Milton,  of  Endicott 
or  of  Mather  or  of  Sewall,  you  cannot  escape  the  conviction 
that  these  were  stern  and  abnormally  sober  men.  Nor  is  it 
to  be  wondered  at  that  they  were,  for  they  lived  in  sober 
times.  The  old  world  was  going  to  pieces  beneath  their 
feet,  and  a  new  world  was  in  the  process  of  formation. 
The  sky  was  filled  with  thunder  clouds  and  lightning  danced 

[131] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

incessantly  about  their  heads.  They  were  engaged  in  one 
of  the  most  savage  and  bloody  conflicts  in  which  the  human 
soul  has  ever  put  forth  its  powers.  And  strange  indeed  it 
would  have  been  if  with  laughing  faces  they  had  danced 
jauntily  along  their  way.  No  wonder  with  such  a  battle- 
field, beneath  such  a  sky,  their  hearts  lost  something  of  the 
buoyancy  that  belongs  to  the  heart,  and  that  their  faces 
took  on  a  stern  and  somber  look  by  which  we  are  both 
attracted  and  repelled.  But  although  we  can  measure  the 
forces  which  produced  their  temper,  we  must  acknowledge 
that  the  severity  of  it  was  no  small  defect.  Our  hearts  are 
not  warmed  by  the  biographies  of  any  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Puritans.  We  admire  them  but  we  do  not  love  them, 
we  eulogize  them  but  we  are  glad  that  the\^  are  dead.  It 
is  a  significant  fact  that  neither  of  the  two  men  whom 
America  has  seated  on  the  highest  thrones  was  either  a 
Puritan  or  the  son  of  a  Puritan.  Washington  and  Lincoln 
had  a  breadth  and  a  sympathy,  a  mellowness  of  nature,  a 
sweet  and  winning  humanness  which  the  Puritan  character 
from  first  to  last  lacked. 

And  this  hardness  of  temper  was  accompanied  by  a  lack 
of  sympathy  not  only  with  the  larger  part  of  the  world  that 
existed  around  the  Puritans  in  their  own  day,  but  especially 
with  the  world  of  the  great  past.  They  underestimated  the 
value  of  tradition  and  gave  little  place  in  their  hearts  to 
the  sweet  memories  of  the  olden  days.  There  had  been 
many  beautiful  things  in  the  past,  but  the  Puritan  turned 
his  back  upon  them  all.  There  was  much  that  was  true  in 
tradition,  but  he  scorned  it  with  fiery  scorn.  His  heart 
was  unresponsive  to  all  appeals  from  one  of  the  great  king- 
doms of  life.  He  cut  himself  off  from  one  of  the  fountains 
at  which  wise  men  must  forever  drink.  It  is  not  difficult, 
however,  for  us  to  understand  just  how  this  came  to  be. 

[  132  ] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

The  immediate  past  was  hideous  to  the  Puritan  heart, 
and  rightly  so.  The  church  had  become  one  vast  sickening 
mass  of  hypocrisy  and  corruption.  The  priests  were  in 
appalling  numbers  ignorant  and  foul.  Archbishops  and 
Cardinals,  not  a  few,  were  cruel  and  avaricious.  The  Pope 
was  the  head  of  a  vast  hierarchy  of  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion. No  wonder  the  Puritans  turned  away  from  the  sick- 
ening spectacle  and  gazed  into  the  future.  It  was  a  common 
saying  that  things  were  bad  in  Germany,  still  worse  in 
England,  and  worst  of  all  in  Scotland.  In  Scotland,  there- 
fore, we  must  expect  to  find  a  swift  and  terrible  reaction 
against  the  world  as  it  had  been.  In  the  consuming  flame  of 
fiery  indignation  the  beautiful  links  by  means  of  which 
generation  is  bound  to  the  generation  that  preceded  it 
were  burned  up  and  cast  away  to  the  serious  impoverish- 
ment of  the  Puritan  mind  and  heart. 

And  for  three  hundred  years  we  have  been  suffering 
from  this  same  infirmity  of  temper.  The  descendants  of 
the  Puritans  have  not  yet  learned  to  appreciate  at  its  full 
value  the  centuries  that  have  been.  The  result  is  a  certain 
shallowness  of  feeling  and  a  certain  contractedness  of  vision 
which  it  should  be  our  earnest  ambition  speedily  to  out- 
grow. It  is  surprising  how  little  use  many  of  us  make  of 
the  history  of  the  church  universal.  Some  of  us  know 
hardly  anything  of  the  Christian  church  before  our  own 
generation.  Some  of  us  have  read  back  as  far  as  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers,  some  of  us  have  even  gone  back  to  the  Ref- 
ormation era,  but  how  few  of  us  have  plunged  into  that 
great  period  known  as  the  dark  ages,  and  how  little  do  we 
know  of  that  vast  stretch  of  fifteen  hundred  years  which 
lies  between  the  death  of  the  apostle  John  and  the  nailing 
of  the  theses  to  the  old  church  door  in  Wittenberg.  We 
simply  speak  of  it  all  as  dark  ages,  taking  it  for  granted 

[  133  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

that  it  is  unworthy  of  our  study.  If  we  should  once  walk 
through  those  distant  times  we  should  be  amazed  to  find 
how  much  light  there  was  even  then.  And  this  also  would 
amaze  us,  the  number  of  ideas  that  were  thought  out  then 
which  we  ignorantly  suppose  to  be  modern.  In  every 
century  since  the  days  of  the  apostles  God  has  had  his 
heroes,  martyrs,  leaders,  saints,  and  all  the  virtues  and  the 
graces  have  blossomed  somewhere  in  every  generation, 
and  in  every  Christian  land.  How  little  we  care  for  this  past 
may  be  seen  by  our  courses  of  study  in  the  Bible  School. 
We  spend  years  in  the  study  of  the  Hebrew  church  as  that 
history  is  written  for  us  in  the  Scriptures,  and  hardly  give 
one  hour  to  the  study  of  the  Christian  church,  notwith- 
standing we  hold  it  true  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  never 
granted  in  fullness  until  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  has  enjoyed  a  fullness  of  guidance  which 
was  never  given  to  the  Church  of  the  Jews.  We  should 
have  sublimer  ideas  of  the  Christian  church,  and  our  hearts 
would  be  sweeter  and  more  mellow  if  more  frequently  we 
walked  down  the  great  cathedral  aisle  nineteen  centuries 
long,  and  allowed  the  subdued  light  to  fall  upon  us  from 
the  pictured  windows  in  which  prophets  and  apostles, 
saints  and  heroes  like  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  speak  to 
us  of  the  high  things  of  the  spirit,  and  encourage  us  to  lay 
aside  every  weight  and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset 
us  and  to  run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us. 

Furthermore,  there  was  in  the  Puritan  disposition  a 
native  incapacity  to  be  tolerant  toward  opinions  and  people 
which  differed  from  him.  He  could  never  quite  bring  him- 
self to  acknowledge  that  there  can  be  truth  on  both  sides. 
To  us  this  is  an  axiom  and  a  commonplace.  We  now  see 
that  there  is  always  truth  on  both  sides,  and  that  whenever 
large  companies  of  men  array  themselves  in  opposition  to 

[134] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

one  another  in  regard  to  any  important  matter  the  truth 
is  not  monopolized  by  one  party.  In  the  contest,  for  in- 
stance, between  labor  and  capital  there  is  truth  on  both 
sides  and  error  on  both  sides.  In  the  contest  over  the  tariff 
there  is  truth  on  both  sides,  otherwise  the  tariff  question 
would  have  been  settled  long  ago.  In  the  realm  of  religion 
there  is  truth  on  both  sides.  The  religions  of  the  Orient 
are  not  totally  false.  There  never  has  been  a  religion  that 
has  won  the  allegiance  of  large  numbers  of  men  that  did 
not  have  in  it  a  deposit  of  truth.  But  it  was  hard  for  the 
Puritan  to  see  this.  His  inability  to  see,  it  is  difficult  for 
us  to  understand.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centu- 
ries he  was  arrayed  against  men  who,  although  in  possession 
of  much  truth,  were  in  possession  of  such  large  quantities 
of  falsehood  that  the  truth  was  sadly  overshadowed.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  Puritan  was  intolerant,  and  in  order 
to  understand  his  intolerance  you  must  throw  yourself 
back  into  the  environment  in  the  midst  of  which  he  lived. 
Mr.  Andrew  Lang  has  recently  written  a  book  in  which  he 
has  given  John  Knox  a  bad  preeminence  in  the  sin  of 
intolerance.  Let  us  acknowledge  the  intolerance  of  the 
Scotchman,  but  do  not  let  us  forget  the  forces  which  con- 
tributed to  make  John  Knox  what  he  was.  Bear  in  mind 
what  he  saw.  Picture  to  yourself  his  opponents.  Do  not 
forget  the  things  which  his  antagonists  were  doing.  In 
England,  Bloody  Mary  was  burning  men  and  women  to 
death  at  the  stake,  and  in  the  Netherlands  the  Duke  of 
Alva  like  an  incarnate  fiend  was  subjecting  Protestants  to 
torture,  the  recital  of  which  still  causes  the  world  to  shud- 
der. And  in  Spain,  Philip  II  was  carrying  on  his  mon- 
strous campaign  against  the  saints  of  God  who  dared  to 
lift  their  voices  against  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  While 
in  France  the  tragedy  had  already  begun  which  culminated 

[  135  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

at  last  in  the  horrible  butchery  of  St.  Bartholomew's.  Is 
it  any  wonder  that  the  Puritans  thought  that  the  truth  was 
on  their  side  and  that  the  father  of  lies,  and  the  father 
of  lies  only,  was  on  the  other  side?  Suppose  that  you  had 
seen  what  John  Knox  saw  and  suffered  what  he  was  called 
upon  to  endure!  He  saw  his  dearest  friend,  the  man  who 
to  him  was  the  purest  and  noblest  man  that  ever  trod  the 
soil  of  Scotland,  burned  at  the  stake.  And  while  George 
Wishart's  body  was  being  consumed  in  the  flames.  Cardinal 
David  Beaton  and  other  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  looked 
out  of  their  castle  windows  at  the  horrible  spectacle  with 
complacency  and  devout  satisfaction.  For  eighteen  months 
Knox  had  bent  over  the  oars  of  a  galley  ship  until  his  health 
was  broken  down  and  infirmities  were  contracted  from  which 
he  suffered  to  the  end  of  his  days.  He  was  an  exile,  he 
was  driven  from  place  to  place  on  the  continent,  and  when 
at  last  he  came  home  he  was  the  target  of  abuse  —  lied 
about,  hounded,  threatened,  shot  at,  execrated.  Can  you 
wonder  that  he  was  an  intolerant  man?  It  is  difficult  for 
any  one  to  be  tolerant  toward  a  highwayman  that  has  him 
by  the  throat.  But  extenuate  the  intolerance  of  the  Puri- 
tans as  we  will,  this  is  one  of  the  infirmities  of  their  temper. 
In  every  generation  they  have  been  prone  to  feel  that  they 
have  the  truth,  the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth, 
and  to  give  scant  recognition  to  those  who  hold  diverse 
opinions  and  contradictory  convictions.  That  is  the 
Puritan  temper  all  the  way  from  John  Endicott  down  to 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips. 

Not  a  little  of  this  spirit  of  intolerance  came  from  the 
Puritan's  conception  of  the  Scriptures.  According  to  the 
Puritan  the  Bible  was  a  book  of  oracles,  the  oracles  of  God. 
God  had  spoken  every  word  written  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
every  word  had  in  it  meanings  of  immeasurable  and  ever- 

[1361 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

lasting  significance.  It  was  a  solid  and  an  equal  book, 
inspired  in  its  every  sentence  and  its  every  letter.  All  the 
books  were  on  a  level :  Genesis  as  high  as  Matthew,  Num- 
bers as  high  as  Mark,  Leviticus  as  valuable  as  Luke, 
Ecclesiastes  as  good  as  John,  Daniel  equal  to  the  letters  of 
St.  Paul.  It  was  a  book  that  contained  in  it  the  law 
of  God.  It  was  a  statute  book.  The  judicial  regulations  of 
Moses  were  the  laws  of  the  Eternal  announced  to  the  Jews 
and  binding  on  all  Christians  to  the  end  of  time.  Whatever 
was  necessary  for  the  human  soul  to  know  was  contained  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  anything  not  written  in  the  Scriptures 
was  not  worthy  of  man's  serious  concern.  Such  was  the 
conception  which  the  Puritan  held  of  the  Bible.  How  he 
came  to  hold  this  opinion  it  is  not  difficult  to  ascertain. 
The  Roman  Catholics  drove  him  into  this  doctrine  of  the 
Bible.  For  a  thousand  years  religious  teachers  had  made 
the  church  the  organ  of  God's  will.  Through  the  church 
and  the  church  only  came  the  divine  voice  to  men.  Through 
the  hierarchy  as  through  a  channel  flowed  God's  grace  into 
human  hearts.  Outside  the  church  there  was  no  salvation, 
and  without  the  church  man  could  not  know  the  will  of 
the  Eternal.  But  little  by  little  the  hierarchy  became 
corrupt.  Cardinals  through  their  evil  living  lost  the  power 
of  hearing  the  voice  of  God,  and  priests  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious mumbled  out  a  message  which  had  no  meaning 
in  it.  Convinced  that  the  church  did  not  speak  the  voice 
of  God,  and  that  its  sacraments  were  no  longer  the  channels 
of  his  grace,  the  Puritans  turned  to  the  Scriptures,  saying: 
"  Here  is  the  message  that  has  come  from  heaven,  to  this 
voice  let  us  pay  earnest  heed."  Against  the  church  of 
Rome  the  Puritans  set  up  the  Bible.  Immediately  the 
Roman  Catholic  doctors  and  leaders  made  war  upon  this 
dangerous  heresy.     '*  The  church  is  one,"  they  shouted; 

[  137  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

and  the  Puritans  replied,  "  So  also  is  the  Bible  one,  one 
solid  book,  every  sentence  in  it  equal  to  every  other  sen- 
tence." The  Roman  Catholic  leaders  declared  that  the 
church  was  inspired,  that  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Al- 
mighty it  did  its  work  and  carried  on  its  teaching.  The 
reply  was:  '*  This  book  is  inspired  in  every  sentence,  every 
word,  every  syllable."  The  Roman  Catholic  leaders  said 
"  The  church  is  infallible,  it  cannot  err,  it  has  never  erred,  it 
will  never  err."  And  the  Puritan  replied:  "  This  book  is 
infallible,  there  is  no  mistake  in  it,  there  cannot  be  one,  it 
is  inerrant  from  first  to  last."  The  Roman  Catholic  leaders 
declared  that  the  church  had  authority,  divine  authority, 
authority  direct  from  heaven.  And  the  reply  from  the 
Puritan  was  that  the  Bible  is  the  fountain  of  authority, 
that  it  and  it  alone  can  bind  the  consciences  of  men,  and 
that  from  its  decisions  no  soul  can  appeal  and  still  be  guilt- 
less. The  Roman  Catholics  declared  that  the  church 
knows  everything  that  it  is  necessary  for  man  to  know, 
and  the  reply  was  that  the  Bible  contains  everything  which 
it  is  necessary  for  man  to  know.  The  Catholics  said  that 
the  church  is  the  appointed  ruler  and  guide  of  men,  order- 
ing men's  lives  and  directing  them  in  their  pleasures  and 
their  work.  The  Puritans  replied:  "The  Bible  is  our 
guide  and  teacher,  it  regulates  our  coming  in  and  our  going 
out  down  to  the  minutest  detail."  This  was  the  theory 
of  the  Scriptures  which  the  Puritan  built  up  in  order  to  meet 
the  audacious  claims  of  the  insolent  and  domineering 
hierarchy.  But  the  Roman  Catholic  idea  of  the  church 
was  wrong.  From  large  circles  of  thoughtful  men  it  passed 
away  long  ago,  amid  explosions  and  wild  terror.  To  many 
pious  hearts  it  seemed  as  though  the  world  was  rushing  to 
destruction  when  men  began  to  question  and  attack  that 
ancient  and  erroneous  theory.     Equally  mistaken  was  the 

[  138  ] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

Puritan  conception  of  the  Scriptures.  Accept  the  Puritan 
conception,  and  there  is  no  escape  from  many  an  absurdity 
and  many  a  cruelty.  Nearly  every  foolish  and  terrible 
thing  which  the  Puritans  did  was  the  result  of  their  erro- 
neous conception  of  the  Bible.  Each  generation  brought 
forth  a  company  of  men  to  defend  things  that  could  not 
be  defended,  and  to  set  up  claims  against  which  the  human 
judgment  arose  in  fiery-eyed  opposition  and  rebellion.  It 
was  only  about  forty  years  ago  that  Puritan  preachers  all 
over  the  South  and  some  of  them  in  the  North  defended 
slavery  as  a  divine  institution,  proving  it  from  the  Scrip- 
tures by  citing  the  fact  that  God  had  pronounced  a  curse 
on  Ham.  All  of  us  are  completely  emancipated  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  church.  To  us  it  seems 
unreasonable,  preposterous  and  dangerous.  Not  all  of  us 
have  yet  outgrown  the  Puritan  conception  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. To  many  of  us  the  Bible  is  a  perplexity  and  a  prob- 
lem. We  always  feel  uneasy  when  the  book  is  mentioned. 
We  do  not  know  what  to  make  of  it,  or  just  how  much 
authority  to  grant  unto  it.  We  have  never  thought  our 
way  out  into  clearness  concerning  it.  And  the  cause  of 
all  our  trouble  is  the  fact  that  we  are  still  entangled  in  the 
meshes  of  the  old  Puritan  conception.  John  Knox  was  a 
Puritan  of  the  Puritans.  In  his  reading  of  the  Bible  he 
took  it  all  as  truth  and  he  took  it  all  as  law.  When  they 
remonstrated  with  him  because  of  the  insulting  language 
which  he  applied  to  the  Queen  even  in  his  prayers,  he  con- 
fidently pointed  to  the  Scriptures,  saying:  "  I  have  a 
warrant  for  my  language  in  the  word  of  God."  There  is 
no  more  pathetic  scene  in  all  Knox's  life  than  that  pre- 
sented in  the  old  church  at  St.  Andrew's  in  the  very  year 
before  the  year  of  his  death,  when  he  stands  in  the  pulpit 
hurling  anathemas  at  a  poor  woman  accused  of  witchcraft 

[  139  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

whom  her  accusers  have  placed  at  the  other  end  of  the 
church.  The  great  reformer  having  covered  her  all  over 
with  the  most  scorching  language  that  he  could  find  in 
the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament,  allows  her  to  be  taken 
out  on  the  following  day  and  burned  to  death.  To  such 
cruelties  have  good  men  been  led  simply  by  holding  wrong 
ideas  of  the  Bible. 

This  erroneous  conception  of  the  Scriptures  led  to  an 
impoverishment  of  public  worship.  It  was  an  axiom  of 
John  Knox's  that  nothing  is  divinely  sanctioned  which  was 
not  established  by  the  apostles,  and  nothing  in  worship  is 
pleasing  to  the  Eternal  or  lawful  for  man  except  what  God 
has  in  express  words  commanded  in  his  Holy  Book.  It 
was  in  this  way  that  the  Puritans  got  rid  of  the  church 
year.  Does  the  Bible,  they  said,  tell  you  to  keep  Christ- 
mas? Then  don't  keep  it.  Does  the  Bible  command  you 
to  observe  Easter?  Then  don't  observe  it.  Does  the  Bible 
tell  you  to  commemorate  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy 
Spirit?  Then  don't  commemorate  it.  The  whole  church 
year  with  all  its  feasts  and  holy  days  was  exorcised  and 
banished.  We  can  see  just  how  this  came  about,  for  the 
church  year  had  lost  its  beauty  and  significance.  The 
Holy  days  had  degenerated  into  holidays.  The  Christian 
calendar  was  weighted  down  by  a  mass  of  paraphernalia 
and  rubbish  blinding  to  the  intelligence  and  demoralizing  to 
the  heart.  There  were  so  many  saints  to  be  remembered 
and  prayed  to  that  the  Lord  God  of  heaven  was  well-nigh 
lost  sight  of.  And  thus  the  church  year  had  become  a  nui- 
sance and  a  curse,  and  the  Puritans  put  it  boldly  into  the 
fire.  But  there  is  a  use  of  the  church  year  which  is  both 
legitimate  and  beneficial,  and  such  a  use  is  gradually  coming 
back.  The  annual  commemoration  of  the  great  truths 
and  facts  of  the  Christian  revelation  is  a  means  of  grace 

[  140  ] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

to  the  Christian  heart.  The  historical  basis  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  a  series  of  colossal  facts  entirely  independent 
of  any  theories  or  interpretations  which  may  be  woven 
around  them,  or  of  any  theological  systems  which  may  be 
built  upon  them.  The  birth  of  Jesus,  the  temptation  of 
Jesus,  the  passion  of  Jesus,  the  death  of  Jesus,  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus,  the  ascension  of  Jesus,  the  coming  at 
Pentecost  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  these  are  the  cardinal  facts 
in  the  history  of  redemption.  And  before  these  facts 
a  man  should  sit  down  once  every  year,  and  let  them  make 
upon  his  soul  whatever  impression  they  can  and  will.  It 
is  not  well  that  a  minister  should  be  left  on  every  Sunday 
to  select  his  theme  after  his  own  caprice  and  inclination. 
Certain  days  of  the  year  should  have  the  right  of  dictation 
and  should  tell  the  minister  what  it  is  that  he  and  his  people 
are  to  think  about.  In  this  way  he  is  saved  from  monotony, 
and  his  people  are  carried  out  through  wider  ranges  of 
experience  and  of  thought.  And  because  this  is  true  the 
church  year  after  an  exile  of  several  hundred  years  is  mak- 
ing its  way  back  to  the  place  which  rightly  exists  for  it. 
Christmas  has  come  back  and  so  has  Easter.  The  Day  of 
Pentecost  will  also  come  back,  and  so  will  Ascension  Day, 
and  so  will  Advent.  Holy  Week  has  already  come  back 
with  its  Palm  Sunday  and  its  Good  Friday.  Now  that 
the  Christian  year  has  been  cleansed  and  reconsecrated, 
why  should  it  not  come  back  to  help  us  all  in  the  way  of  life? 
And  it  was  the  Puritans  who  banished  kneeling  also  from 
the  Christian  church.  Christians  for  centuries  had  been 
trained  to  kneel  at  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
But  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  course  of  time  had  become 
the  mass,  and  the  mass  in  the  hands  of  sensual  and  ignorant 
men  became  idolatry,  and  to  the  Puritan  mind  and  con- 
science it  was  idolatry  in  its  most  heinous  form.     They 

[  141  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

would  not  kneel  before  the  wafer,  and  little  by  little  all 
kneeling  vanished  from  the  Puritan  churches.  Men  and 
women  stood  up  when  they  said  their  prayers,  and  later  on 
they  sat  down  with  hushed  hearts  and  bowed  heads,  and 
later  on  they  sat  boldly  upright,  the  body  refusing  to  show 
in  its  posture  any  consciousness  of  reverence  and  depen- 
dence. And  so  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  worst  church 
manners  in  Christendom  are  to  be  found  inside  of  Puritan 
churches.  If  the  Roman  Catholic  church  had  no  other 
blessing  to  give  to  the  world  but  this,  it  would  be  rendering  a 
service  worthy  of  lasting  gratitude  if  it  did  nothing  more  than 
train  men  to  kneel.  It  is  an  inspiration  to  worship  God  in  any 
church  in  which  the  spirit  of  reverence  is  still  alive  and  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  attitude  and  posture  of  those  who  pray. 

But  with  all  his  limitations  the  Puritan  was  a  mighty 
man.  Make  the  list  of  his  defects  as  long  as  you  can  and 
the  list  of  his  virtues  is  still  longer.  If  we  criticise  him,  let 
us  never  forget  to  praise  him.  The  world  will  never  forget 
him  because  his  supreme  desire  on  earth  was  to  know  the 
will  of  the  Eternal.  This  was  the  passion  that  burned  in  his 
heart  with  fervent  heat  from  first  to  last,  making  glorious 
the  entire  record  of  his  life.  "  O  that  I  knew  where  I  might 
find  him,  that  I  might  come  even  to  his  seat."  This  was 
the  constant  cry  of  his  noble  spirit,  and  the  very  loftiness 
of  his  aspiration  separated  him  from  other  men.  No  one 
can  ever  understand  him,  or  do  justice  to  him,  who  has  not 
known  what  it  is  to  long  to  know  the  will  of  God.  The 
idlers  will  never  be  able  to  understand  him,  nor  the  loafers, 
nor  the  shallow  spectators  of  the  world.  Only  men  of  ear- 
nest spirit  and  eager  to  understand  the  plan  of  the  Almighty 
can  ever  come  close  enough  to  him  to  grasp  the  secret  of 
his  strength.  Worldly-minded  men  in  love  with  the  surface 
of  things  have  had  much  to  say  about  the  awful  rudeness 

[  142  ] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

of  the  Puritan,  his  barbarous  destructiveness  and  the 
ferocity  with  which  he  destroyed  works  of  art  and  trampled 
under  his  feet  some  fine  specimens  of  noble  architecture. 
But  there  are  some  things  in  this  world  more  precious  far 
than  the  colors  of  a  picture  or  the  carving  of  a  doorway. 
The  soul  of  man  is  worth  infinitely  more  than  anything  which 
genius  has  ever  yet  created,  and  if  in  order  to  liberate  the 
soul  of  man  it  becomes  necessary  to  destroy  the  work 
of  human  hands,  let  the  sacrifice  be  made  without  regret 
and  without  complaining.  There  are  those  who  never  think 
or  speak  of  General  Sherman  without  dwelling  upon  the 
barns  which  he  burned  and  the  dwellings  which  he  destroyed 
on  his  march  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea.  But  the  men  who 
loved  the  Union,  and  wished  to  save  the  Union  from  de- 
struction, will  never  let  the  smoke  of  the  burning  buildings 
blind  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Sherman  cut  the  con- 
federacy in  two.  He  knew  that  war  was  hell,  and  said  so, 
but  sometimes  gigantic  evils  cannot  be  crushed  without 
the  destruction  of  the  temple  in  which  the  evils  have  built 
their  shrine.  John  Knox  was  not  responsible  for  all  the 
iconoclasm  in  Scotland  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Much  of 
the  destruction  was  carried  on  by  what  he  called  the 
"  rascal  multitude."  Scotchmen,  long  deceived  and 
abused  by  the  Roman  church,  when  once  their  eyes  were 
opened,  could  not  be  restrained  from  acts  which  we  in  these 
cooler  and  gentler  times  find  it  impossible  to  justify.  But 
while  Knox  did  not  create  the  spirit  which  broke  the  images 
to  pieces,  he  shed  no  tears  over  the  shattered  granite,  so 
deeply  interested  was  he  in  the  liberation  of  the  soul. 
There  was  much  truth  in  his  famous  saying:  "  If  you  do  not 
want  the  rooks  to  return,  you  must  pull  down  their  nests." 
But  to  the  Puritan  the  end  of  life  was  not  knowledge  but 
action.     His  supreme  ambition  was  not  simply  to  know 

[  143  ]     . 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

the  will  of  God,  but  to  do  it.  He  believed  that  it  belongs 
to  men  to  establish  God's  kingdom  here  upon  the  earth, 
and  it  was  that  belief  of  his  which  made  him  so  exceedingly 
uncomfortable  to  many  of  his  contemporaries.  A  man 
may  desire  to  know  the  will  of  God  and  still  be  able  to  live 
at  peace  with  his  neighbors,  but  let  a  man  start  out  to  do 
God's  will  and  to  persuade  other  men  to  do  it,  and  to  build 
that  will  into  the  structure  of  the  Church  and  State,  and 
he  kindles  at  once  a  conflagration  on  the  earth.  No  more 
practical  men  than  the  Puritans  ever  lived.  God  is  sover- 
eign and  it  is  his  right  to  rule  in  private  life  and  social  life 
and  political  life.  The  State  must  be  Christian.  We 
sometimes  speak  of  the  Puritan  preachers  as  being  doctrinal 
—  doctrinal  they  were  as  all  the  great  preachers  have  ever 
been  and  must  ever  be.  But  they  did  not  stop  at  doctrine; 
they  went  on  to  apply  the  doctrine  to  the  institutions  and 
people  of  their  day.  The  thing  that  delighted  John  Knox 
in  Geneva  was  not  the  doctrine  preached,  but  the  superb 
way  in  which  the  doctrine  was  expressed  in  the  lives  of  the 
people.  "  I  neither  fear,"  he  said,  ''  nor  am  ashamed  to 
say  that  Geneva  is  the  most  perfect  school  of  Christ  that 
ever  was  on  the  earth  since  the  days  of  the  apostles.  In 
other  places  I  confess  Christ  to  be  truly  preached,  but  man- 
ners and  religion  so  truly  formed  I  have  not  yet  seen  in 
any  other  place."  In  his  own  preaching  he  was  ever  in- 
tensely practical.  Like  all  the  great  Puritans  he  laid 
his  strong  hands  on  human  institutions  to  mould  them  so 
far  as  possible  into  forms  which  would  please  the  King. 
We  have  a  description  of  his  preaching  when  he  was  old 
and  partially  incapacitated  by  a  stroke  of  paralysis.  Near 
the  close  of  his  life  he  was  exiled  from  Edinburgh,  spending 
several  months  in  St.  Andrew's.  He  was  weary  of  the  world, 
and  described  himself   as  being  half  dead,  but  half  dead 

[  144] 


STRENGTH  AND  WEAKNESS  OF  PURITANISM 

though  he  was  he  was  still  able  to  move  the  souls  of  men. 
James  Melville  was  at  that  time  a  student  in  St.  Andrew's 
and  used  to  go  to  hear  him  preach.  He  has  told  us  how  two 
servants  lifted  the  old  preacher  into  the  pulpit.  "  In  the 
opening  of  his  text,"  says  Melville,  "  he  was  moderate  for 
the  space  of  half  an  hour,  but  when  he  entered  to  applica- 
tion, he  made  me  so  to  thrill  and  tremble  that  I  could  not 
hold  a  pen  to  write."  "  God  give  me  Scotland,  or  I  die,"  — 
that  was  the  great  burning,  thrilling  cry  that  vibrated  in 
every  sermon.  And  because  these  men  desired  to  know 
the  will  of  God  and  did  their  utmost  to  do  it  on  the  earth, 
the  laurel  will  never  wither  on  their  brow. 

In  one  of  the  squares  of  the  City  of  Edinburgh  there 
stands  a  statue  of  Charles  II,  and  near  the  pedestal  there 
is  a  worn  slab  in  the  pavement  of  the  street  bearing 
the  simple  inscription:  ''J.  K.  1572."  The  statue  and  the 
slab  are  not  without  pathos  and  suggestiveness.  The 
statue  of  the  English  king  catches  and  holds  the  eye.  In 
his  life  he  was  handsome  and  picturesque,  and  the  world 
will  always  take  delight  in  looking  at  him.  He  was  dressed 
in  soft  raiment  and  lived  in  kings'  houses,  and  his  laces  and 
ribbons  made  him  interesting  to  many  people  of  his  day, 
as  to  many  people  since.  But  the  burning  Scotchman  was 
not  a  Potentate.  He  was  nothing  but  a  prophet  of  the 
Lord.  It  is  fitting  that  Charles  II  should  have  the  statue, 
and  that  Knox's  only  monument  should  be  a  worn  slab  in 
the  pavement  of  the  street.  Let  the  old  slab  lie  there.  It 
is  more  eloquent  than  any  statue.  It  speaks  to  us  of  one 
who  along  with  others  threw  up  the  splendid  highway 
upon  whose  granite  slabs  the  hoofs  of  the  steeds  of  the 
chariot  of  progress  make  music  in  our  ears,  and  along 
whose  upward  slope  civilization  thunders  and  flashes  in 
its  surprising  and  glorious  career. 

[145] 


IX 

THE   PURITAN   THEOLOGY^ 

"/  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up."  — 
Isaiah  5  ;  1. 

The  Puritans  had  more  to  do  with  the  building  of  our 
modern  world  than  any  other  body  of  men  who  have  lived 
since  the  days  of  the  Apostles.  The  marks  of  their  influ- 
ence are  everywhere.  They  have  left  their  impress  on  the 
structure  of  our  Republic,  they  have  left  a  deeper  imprint 
on  the  fiber  of  our  church.  Our  exterior  life  bears  witness 
to  the  force  of  their  example.  We  men  wear  our  hair 
short  because  of  the  fashion  set  by  the  Puritans.  Before 
the  day  of  the  Puritans,  English  gentlemen  wore  their  hair 
long  and  curled.  We  men  prefer  sober  colors  in  our  cloth- 
ing because  that  was  the  taste  of  the  Puritans.  Before 
the  Puritans  set  a  quieter  fashion,  the  gentlemen  of  Eng- 
land dressed  in  colors  which  were  brilliant  and  gaudy. 
Upon  our  interior  life  the  Puritans  have  left  their  stamp 
still  more  indelibly.  They  have  moulded  our  vocabulary, 
giving  certain  words  a  luster  which  they  have  never  lost. 
They  have  furnished  us  with  many  of  our  ideals  and  domi- 
nant conceptions.  The  pressure  of  their  spirit  is  on  our 
spirit.  They  are  the  men  best  worth  knowing  of  all  the 
men  who  have  lived  within  the  last  thousand  years. 

We  need  to  know  them  in  order  to  appreciate  and  under- 
stand the  world  in  which  we  are  living.  In  many  kingdoms 
of  our  life  there  are  things  which  cannot  be  interpreted,  or 
fairly  dealt  with,  or  profited  by,  unless  we  know  some- 
thing of  the  ideals,  the  temper  and  the  achievements  of 

iDec.  17,  1911. 

[  146  ] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

the  seventeenth  century  Puritans.  Let  us  think  this  morn- 
ing about  the  Puritan  Theology. 

Theology  is  the  science  of  religion.  A  science  is  the  in- 
tellectual interpretation  or  exposition  of  a  certain  group 
of  related  phenomena.  For  instance,  the  starry  heavens 
present  a  spectacle  upon  which  the  mind  goes  to  work. 
Those  moving  points  of  light  excite  the  curiosity.  What 
are  they?  why  do  they  move?  why  do  they  move  with 
varying  speeds?  why  do  some  of  them  change  their  relative 
positions  while  others  do  not?  how  are  they  related?  and 
what  are  their  magnitudes  and  distances?  For  all  these 
questions,  the  mind  seeks  answers.  The  result  of  the  study 
is  a  series  of  interpretations  and  conclusions,  and  this  prod- 
uct of  the  intellect  is  known  as  the  science  of  astronomy. 
The  reality  is  the  sidereal  heavens,  and  the  science  of  as- 
tronomy is  the  account  which  the  mind  gives  to  itself  of 
its  work  among  the  stars. 

We  have  round  us  a  plant  world.  This  world  contains 
trees  and  shrubs,  flowers  and  grasses  and  lichens  and  mosses. 
Upon  this  mass  of  growing  things  the  mind  goes  to  work. 
It  analyzes,  arranges,  classifies.  It  traces  processes  and 
ferrets  out  relations.  It  writes  a  statement  of  what  it  finds, 
giving  it  a  shape  which  will  satisfy  the  reason.  This  in- 
tellectual presentation  of  what  the  mind  thinks  of  the 
world  of  plants  is  called  the  science  of  botany.  The  plant 
world  is  the  reality  and  botany  is  the  intellectual  interpre- 
tation of  it. 

Man  turns  his  eye  upon  himself.  He  studies  humanity. 
He  notes  that  ever3rwhere  men  are  religious  animals.  Every- 
where and  in  every  time  they  feel  after  unseen  powers. 
They  have  the  sense  of  weakness  and  of  guilt.  They  offer 
prayers,  perform  acts  of  penance,  build  temples,  set  up 
forms  of  worship.     They  obtain  a  sense  of  relief,  and  are 

[147] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

conscious  of  augmented  strength  and  joy.  These  are 
phenomena  of  religion,  and  the  mind  goes  to  work  upon 
them  in  order  to  define  them  and  relate  them  and  ascertain 
their  significance.  The  reaching  after  some  one  above 
himself,  the  hunger  for  something  this  world  does  not  con- 
tain, the  sense  of  sin  and  the  assurance  of  forgiveness,  these 
are  data  with  which  the  intellect  must  deal,  and  the  result- 
ing conclusions  constitute  the  science  of  theology.  Chris- 
tian theology  is  the  exposition  of  the  phenomena  of  religion 
viewed  in  the  light  of  the  consciousness  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
using  his  words  and  deeds,  his  life  and  death,  as  primary 
media  for  obtaining  a  deeper  insight  into  the  nature  and 
laws  of  the  spiritual  world.  It  is  the  intellectual  state- 
ment of  what  God  is  and  of  what  man  is  as  seen  through 
Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

There  is  a  prejudice  against  theology  in  many  quarters, 
deep-rooted  and  sometimes  bitter.  One  finds  it  not  only 
among  men  who  are  experts  in  other  sciences,  but  also  in 
the  man  in  the  street.  Not  only  do  unbelievers  jeer  at 
theology,  but  so  do  also  many  professed  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  members  of  his  church.  Theology,  it  is  assumed, 
is  a  mischievous  and  debilitating  science,  quite  unworthy 
of  a  place  among  the  physical  and  social  sciences  which  are 
the  pride  and  glory  of  our  generation. 

By  many  intelligent  persons  it  is  assumed  that  theology 
is  useless,  and  that  time  spent  upon  it  is  worse  than  wasted. 
"  Don't  bother  yourself  about  theology,  do  your  duty  and 
let  theology  go,"  such  is  the  brave  advice  often  given,  and 
many  deem  it  wise.  But  is  theology  after  all  a  needless 
science?  How  can  man  live  without  theology?  He  cannot 
go  without  a  theology  unless  he  refuses  to  think.  Let  him 
think,  even  a  little,  about  the  phenomena  of  religion  and 
he  begins  at  once  to  become  a  theologian.     The  product 

[148] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

of  his  thinking  is  theology.  If  you  think  about  the  stars 
you  are  bound  to  have  astronomy,  and  if  you  think  about 
the  flowers  you  are  certain  to  have  botany,  and  if  you  think 
about  God  and  sin  and  duty  and  destiny  you  cannot  escape 
theology.  When  men  say,  therefore,  that  they  do  not  be- 
lieve in  theology  they  are  really  saying  that  they  do  not 
believe  that  men  ought  to  think  about  the  highest  class  of 
phenomena  which  comes  within  the  scope  of  human  ob- 
servation. You  may  think  about  the  stars,  and  about  the 
flowers,  about  the  rocks  and  about  the  beetles,  but  you 
need  not  think  about  prayer  or  the  sense  of  sin  or  the 
efforts  of  the  soul  to  find  strength  and  peace.  All  thought 
about  the  highest  experiences  of  human  beings  is  altogether 
useless!  How  strange  that  men  can  bring  themselves  to  so 
foolish  a  conclusion.  I  can  imagine  a  frog  sitting  on  a 
starry  night  on  the  edge  of  a  pond,  saying  to  himself:  "  I 
see  no  sense  in  the  science  of  astronomy.  Why  do  men 
worry  themselves  about  nebulae  and  eclipses  and  comets? 
What  is  the  use  of  wasting  time  in  trying  to  find  out  the 
cause  of  heat  in  the  sun,  or  the  character  of  the  surface 
of  the  moon?  As  for  me,  I  like  to  sit  here  bathed  in  star- 
light, never  puzzling  my  head  about  the  problems  which 
torment  the  astronomer's  brain.  I  think  it  is  enough 
simply  to  sit  here  and  croak!  "  I  can  imagine  a  cow, 
browsing  contentedly  in  a  field,  saying  to  herself:  "  What 
care  I  for  botany?  The  clover  is  sweet  and  I  do  not  want 
it  explained.  If  now  and  then  I  get  a  buttercup  or  daisy 
I  gulp  it  down  along  with  the  clover.  What  interest  do  I 
take  in  sepals  and  petals,  in  stamens  and  pistils,  or  in  any 
of  these  new-fangled  notions  about  the  functions  of  insects 
in  the  fertilization  of  flowers?  I  despise  all  your  sciences. 
I  just  eat!  "  But  man  belongs  to  a  different  order  of  being. 
He  is  intrusted  with  a  mind.     He  is  capable  of  thinking 

[  149] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

God's  thoughts  after  him  and  entering  into  his  plans.  If  he 
does  not  care  to  think  about  the  highest  objects  of  thought, 
then  he  has  abdicated  the  position  to  which  he  was  called 
and  has  thrown  away  one  of  the  brightest  jewels  in  his 
crown ! 

There  are  others  who  think  that  theology  is  an  anti- 
quated science.  It  may  have  been  at  one  time  the  queen 
of  the  sciences,  but  its  glory  has  departed.  It  is  a  belated 
and  benighted  science  with  which  ages  of  progress  can 
have  nothing  to  do.  That  brilliant  Frenchman,  Auguste 
Comte,  the  founder  of  the  Positivist  Philosophy,  was 
always  saying  that  humanity  passes  through  three  stages 
in  its  mastery  of  the  world.  The  first  stage  is  theological, 
the  second  is  metaphysical,  the  third  is  positive.  In  the 
theological  stage,  man  searches  for  causes,  while  in  the 
positive  stage  he  is  a  student  of  laws.  It  is  not  until  you 
outgrow  the  theological  and  pass  into  the  positive  that 
the  world  takes  a  leap  forward.  That  is  the  opinion 
of  many  who  have  never  read  the  books  of  Auguste 
Comte. 

The  reason  why  theology  is  counted  by  many  a  dis- 
credited science  is  because  of  the  blunders  and  errors  of 
theologians  who  lived  long  ago.  It  is  easy  to  make  a  col- 
lection of  absurd  theories  and  ridiculous  deductions  and 
cruel  doctrines,  and  by  means  of  these  prove  that  theol- 
ogy is  a  dangerous  science  and  that  theologians  are  right- 
fully classed  among  the  foes  of  progress.  But  is  this  fair? 
Is  theology  the  only  science  which  has  gone  astray?  Are 
theologians  the  only  men  who  have  been  caught  in  error? 
What  science  can  escape  if  we  compel  it  to  face  its  past? 
One  of  the  noblest  of  modern  sciences  is  astronomy,  but 
what  a  record  astronomy  has  to  answer  for.  Astrological 
astronomy  was  full  of  superstition,  farther  from  the  truth 

[150] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

than  any  system  of  Christian  theology  has  been,  but  no  one 
now  looks  askance  at  astronomy.  Astrological  astronomy 
was  followed  by  Ptolemaic  astronomy,  which  was  a  strange 
hodge-podge  of  fanciful  conjectures  and  specious  error.  To 
make  the  earth  the  center  of  the  universe  and  set  all  the 
stars  revolving  around  it  is  riduculous  enough  to  us  now, 
but  for  thousands  of  years  it  was  the  best  conception  which 
the  very  noblest  minds  could  attain.  No  one,  I  think, 
wants  to  stone  the  astronomers  of  our  day  because  of  what 
astronomers  taught  a  thousand  years  ago.  Why,  then, 
pelt  theologians  with  disparaging  epithets  because  of 
blunders  committed  by  their  predecessors  long  since  turned 
to  dust  in  their  graves? 

Another  count  in  the  arraignment  of  theology  is  that 
it  is  an  airy  science,  dealing  in  speculations  and  vagaries, 
and  built  largely  on  clouds.  But  this  again  is  a  misconcep- 
tion. Theology  deals  with  facts,  solid  and  incontrovertible 
as  any  of  the  facts  with  which  other  sciences  have  to  do. 
The  facts  of  the  spiritual  world  are  not  a  whit  less  sub- 
stantial than  are  the  facts  of  the  physical  world.  The 
cravings  and  aspirations  of  the  heart  are  as  truly  facts  as 
the  constellations.  That  man  prays  and  finds  satisfaction 
in  prayer  is  as  certain  as  it  is  that  the  oceans  roll  on  their 
beds.  That  Jesus  of  Nazareth  died  on  the  cross  is  as  in- 
controvertible as  that  Demosthenes  stirred  the  Greeks  to 
march  against  Philip,  and  that  Caesar  conquered  Gaul. 
To  be  sure  there  is  a  speculative  element  in  theology  as 
there  is  in  every  science.  The  hypothetical  and  the  con- 
jectural cannot  be  eliminated  from  any  science.  It  is  by 
means  of  hypothesis  and  observation  and  deduction  that 
every  science  progresses.  Again  and  again  it  happens 
that  the  hypothesis  is  not  sustained,  the  observation  is  not 
wide  enough,  and  the  deduction  is  erroneous.     For  this 

[151] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

reason  every  science  has  two  elements,  the  permanent  and 
the  transient.    But  all  sciences  alike  deal  with  reality. 

It  is  often  tauntingly  said  that  theology  is  autocratic  and 
conceited,  claiming  to  have  reached  conclusions,  all  of  which 
are  final,  and  therefore,  theology,  unlike  other  sciences,  is 
stationary  and  cannot  interest  men  who  believe  in  ever- 
lasting progress.  The  accusation  is  a  calumny.  There 
have  been  theologians  quite  too  dogmatic  and  omniscient, 
but  this  foible  is  not  confined  to  the  theologians.  No  science 
has  had  a  monopoly  of  dogmatism  and  conceit.  Every- 
body who  reads  church  history  knows  that  theology  has 
never  been  stationary,  and  that  from  the  nature  of  the  case  it 
never  can  be.  Like  all  other  sciences  it  is  always  chang- 
ing, and  progresses  with  the  unfolding  of  human  thought. 
A  glance  through  the  volume  of  Harnack's  History  of 
Dogma  will  satisfy  any  one  that  theology  is  not  a  station- 
ary science,  and  a  survey  of  New  England  theology  reveals 
that  Calvinism  was  always  being  restated,  modified,  im- 
proved, to  meet  the  demands  of  the  Christian  conscience 
and  reason.  The  theology  of  Jonathan  Edwards  is  some- 
what different  as  worked  out  by  Samuel  Hopkins,  and 
different  still  in  the  writings  of  Nathaniel  Emmons,  and 
modified  again  in  the  volumes  of  Nathaniel  William  Tay- 
lor, and  again  recast  in  the  lectures  of  Edward  A.  Park. 
That  theology  is  a  cast-iron  thing,  fixed  and  forevermore 
the  same,  cramping  the  mind  of  those  who  devote  them- 
selves to  it,  is  one  of  the  chimeras  of  the  uninformed  imagi- 
nation. Like  every  other  science,  theology  may,  for  a  sea- 
son, be  arrested  in  its  development,  but  soon  or  late  it  obeys 
the  principle  of  progress,  and  moves  on  to  new  positions. 

In  studying  the  Puritan  theology  we  are  studying 
an  intellectual  statement  of  Christianity  which  has  lost 
its  sway  over  the  modern   mind.     The  theology  of  the 

[1521 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

Puritans  was  Calvinism.     How  the  Puritans  of  England 
fell  under  the  sway  of  Calvin  is  an  interesting  page  of 
history.     It  was  in  1534  that  Henry  VHI,  by  the  Act  of 
Supremacy,  was  declared  to  be  head  of  the  English  church, 
and  England's  final  break  with  Rome  was  consummated. 
Only  two  years  later  a  young  Frenchman,  twenty-seven 
years    old,    brought    out   a   volume    of    theology    known 
as  Calvin's   Institutes.     Exiled   from   Paris,  the   youthful 
theologian  made  his  way  to  Geneva,  where,  for  twenty- 
five  years,  with  one  brief  interruption,  he  promulgated  his 
ideas  to  the  world.    Whatever  one  may  think  of  Calvinism, 
he  is  bound  to  acknowledge  that  John  Calvin  is  one  of  the 
most   remarkable   characters   of   history.      An   emaciated 
semi-invalid,  he  worked  with  almost  superhuman  strength, 
stamping  his  ideas  not  only  on  Geneva  but  on  a  consider- 
able portion  of  Europe.     His  eyes  blazed  with  a  piercing 
fire  and  his  mind  was  as  keen  as  a  Damascus  blade.  Through 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI,   Calvin  was  in  correspondence 
with  the  leaders  in  English  politics,  and  Cranmer  and  many 
others  were  mightily  influenced  by  him.    When  Mary  came 
to  the  throne,  she,  under  the  Roman  Catholic  influence  of 
Spain,  adopted  a  policy  intended  to  bring  England  back 
under  the  power  of  Rome.    It  was  the  old  policy  of  perse- 
cution.   She  began  to  burn  at  the  stake  those  who  resisted 
the  Roman  Catholic  program,  and  in  her  short  reign  of 
five  and  a  half  years  nearly  three  hundred  Protestants  were 
put  to  death.     Thousands  of  Englishmen  fled  to  the  conti- 
nent for  their  life,  among  them  hundreds  of  clergymen. 
Many  of  these  found  their  way  to  Geneva,  where  Calvin 
was  now  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame  and  power.    Sometimes 
he  had  a  thousand  students  at  his  feet.     The  world  has 
known  few  such  teachers.     He  had  a  genius  for  building 
his  ideas  into  the  minds  of  those  who  listened  to  him.    On 

[153] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

the  death  of  Bloody  Mary,  the  refugees  returned  to  Eng- 
land, carrying  back  the  theology  of  Calvin.  It  was  the 
radicals  who  had  fled  to  Geneva,  and  it  was  the  radicals 
everywhere  who  had  listened  most  gladly  to  the  Calvin- 
istic  doctrines.  It  is  noteworthy  that  all  the  Separatists 
were  Calvinists,  all  the  Presbyterians,  all  the  Baptists,  all 
the  Independents  and  Congregationalists,  all  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  all  the  colonists  of  Massachusetts  were  steeped 
in  the  doctrines  of  John  Calvin.  There  was  something  in 
Calvinism  that  made  it  congenial  to  ardent  and  liberty- 
loving  hearts,  but  it  also  won  converts  in  classes  widely 
separated  from  the  Puritans.  Parker,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  a  stubborn  opponent  of  the  Puritans  and 
at  the  same  time  a  Calvinist;  so  was  Archbishop  Grindall, 
and  so  also  was  Archbishop  Whitgift,  one  of  the  most 
implacable  of  all  the  enemies  of  Puritanism  and  one  of  the 
stoutest  defenders  of  Calvinistic  doctrines.  He  was  one 
of  the  authors  in  1595  of  the  Lambeth  articles,  one  of  the 
stiffest  pieces  of  Calvanism  ever  put  forth  as  a  symbol  of 
faith.  These  facts,  if  borne  in  mind,  will  save  us  from  a 
blunder  often  made,  the  blunder  of  identifying  Puritanism 
and  Calvinism.  It  has  often  been  taken  for  granted  that 
Calvinists  and  Puritans  are  one  and  the  same  people,  that 
Calvinism  is  Puritanism  and  that  Puritanism  is  Calvinism. 
The  two  are  to  be  distinguished.  Puritanism  is  a  spirit,  and 
Calvinism  is  a  theology  which  Puritanism  made  use  of  in 
working  out  its  destiny.  Puritanism  is  a  reform  move- 
ment, and  Calvinism  is  a  weapon  which  the  reform  move- 
ment wielded  in  fighting  its  battles.  But  the  two  are  dis- 
tinct. All  Puritans  were  Calvinists,  but  not  all  Calvinists 
were  Puritans.  The  Puritan  spirit  was  in  the  world  long 
before  Calvin  was  born,  and  this  spirit  remains  after  Cal- 
vinism has  been  discarded. 

[  154  ] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

The  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  century,  however,  were 
Calvinists  and  so  were  the  New  England  Puritans  of  the 
eighteenth.  The  men  who  in  1646  formulated  the  West- 
minster Confession  of  Faith  were  uncompromising  Cal- 
vinists. Two  years  later  when  the  Congregational  churches 
of  New  England  felt  the  time  had  come  to  issue  a  declara- 
tion of  faith,  they  wrote  this  in  the  preface  of  what  is  known 
in  church  history  as  the  Cambridge  Platform:  "The 
Synod  having  perused  and  considered  the  Confession  of 
Faith  published  of  late  by  the  Reverend  Assembly  in 
England,  do  judge  it  to  be  very  holy,  orthodox  and  judi- 
cious in  all  matters  of  faith:  and  do  therefore  freely  and 
fully  consent  thereunto,  for  the  substance  thereof."  The 
only  points  on  which  the  Congregationalists  of  the  New 
World  differed  from  the  Presbyterians  of  the  Old  World 
were  points  of  church  government.  In  all  matters  of  doc- 
trine they  were  one.  In  1658  the  representatives  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  Congregational  churches  of  England 
met  in  the  Savoy  palace  in  London  and  formulated  what 
is  known  as  the  "  Savoy  Declaration."  This  is  one  of 
the  famous  creeds  of  Congregationalism.  It  accepts  the 
doctrine  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  and  then  sets  forth 
the  Congregational  ideas  of  church  government.  In  1680 
the  Boston  Synod  adopted  the  Savoy  Declaration  as  the 
creed  of  our  American  churches.  This  position  was  re- 
affirmed by  the  Saybrook  Platform  issued  in  1708.  All 
through  the  eighteenth  century  and  through  more  than 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Calvinism  was  the  pro- 
fessed theology  of  the  Congregational  churches  of  America. 
Little  by  little,  however,  both  ministers  and  laymen  fell 
away  from  the  old  Calvinistic  interpretations,  and  when, 
in  1865,  the  representatives  of  our  churches  met  in  Plym- 
outh, Massachusetts,  and  put  forth  what  is  known  as  the 

[155] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Burial  Hill  Declaration  of  Faith,  it  was  deemed  inexpedient 
to  introduce  into  that  declaration  a  statement  recom- 
mended by  the  committee,  to  the  effect  that  "  our  churches 
still  adhere  to  that  body  of  doctrines  known  as  Calvinism." 
Allegiance  to  the  past  was  expressed  in  more  general  and 
elastic  phrases,  making  room  in  American  Congregational- 
ism for  all  those  who  were  no  longer  Calvinists.  When  the 
committee  of  our  National  Council  formulated  the  creed 
of  1883,  the  Calvinistic  tone  and  complexion  were  com- 
pletely wanting,  and  when  in  1906,  in  the  city  of  Dayton, 
a  creed  was  agreed  upon  by  the  representatives  of  our  own 
denomination  and  two  others  seeking  a  basis  of  union,  there 
was  in  it  of  Calvinism  not  a  trace.  So  far,  then,  as  our 
denomination  is  concerned,  the  Puritan  theology  may  be 
said  to  have  passed  away.  We  are  living  in  a  new 
age,  and  the  new  wine  cannot  be  poured  into  the  old 
skins. 

When  one  picks  up  a  volume  of  any  one  of  the  Puritan 
theologians,  either  Owen  or  Baxter  or  Howe,  Edwards  or 
Hopkins  or  Taylor,  he  is  impressed  first  of  all  by  the  Bib- 
lico-argumentative  character  of  the  discussion.  Puritan 
theology  is  a  mixture  of  Bible  sentences  and  logic.  Every 
argument  begins  with  the  Bible.  A  principle  announced 
in  the  Scriptures  is  seized  upon  and  its  contents  are  un- 
folded, by  a  process  of  reasoning  rigorous  to  a  degree.  At 
certain  points  in  the  progress  a  pause  is  made  for  the  con- 
templation of  certain  texts  which  prove  that  the  movement 
is  in  the  right  direction  and  that  it  has  the  sanction  of  the 
Bible.  When  at  last  the  conclusion  is  reached,  another  col- 
lection of  proof  texts  is  presented  to  demonstrate  that  the 
conclusion  is  none  other  than  the  mind  of  God.  The 
structure  is  built  by  the  reason,  but  it  is  all  made  to  rest 
upon  Scripture.    The  argument  is  unfolded  in  the  strictest 

[156] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

and  most  logical  manner,  and  from  the  final  decisions  there 
is  apparently  no  possible  escape. 

To  understand  the  complexion  of  Puritan  theology  it  is 
necessary  to  understand  the  sixteenth  century  and  the 
three  centuries  which  preceded  it.  The  mediaeval  church 
subordinated  both  the  Bible  and  the  reason  to  the  church, 
and  by  church  was  meant  the  hierarchy  of  Rome.  What- 
ever the  church  said  was  truth,  and  was  to  be  accepted 
without  argument  or  question.  The  church  claimed  ab- 
solute authority  over  men's  conscience  and  reason.  Noth- 
ing could  be  preached  which  did  not  have  the  sanction  of 
the  conclave  of  ecclesiastics  in  Rome.  No  book  could  be 
given  the  world  that  did  not  have  the  approval  of  the 
ecclesiastical  censors.  No  opinion  in  science  or  philosophy 
was  tolerated  that  did  not  commend  itself  to  the  Pope.  It 
was  he  who  could  determine  what  the  Scriptures  taught, 
and  the  laity  were  to  accept  their  religious  opinions  at  the 
mouth  of  the  church  without  investigation.  In  this  way 
credulity  was  made  synonymous  with  faith,  and  all  sorts 
of  superstition  were  foisted  on  men  in  the  name  of  religion. 
With  the  Bible  closed  and  reason  in  chains  Europe  sank 
into  degradation  and  darkness.  When  at  last  men  were 
found  brave  enough  to  question  the  decisions  of  Popes  and 
Councils  and  to  defy  the  threats  of  the  church,  it  was 
natural  that  they  should  fall  back  on  the  Scriptures  and 
the  reason.  Calvin,  especially,  exalted  the  Scriptures,  pro- 
claiming them  the  authoritative  declaration  of  God's  will, 
and  along  with  the  belief  in  the  Scriptures  he  had  pro- 
found confidence  in  the  ability  of  the  enlightened  Chris- 
tian man  to  read  the  Bible  for  himself.  The  followers  of 
Calvin  built  on  these  two  principles,  the  authority  of  the 
Scriptures  and  the  right  of  individual  judgment.  Wherever 
men    accepted    these    two    principles,    they   were    always 

[157] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

quoting  Scripture,  and  were  always  reasoning  about  it  as 
though  the  reason  were  a  faculty  not  to  be  banished  from 
the  realm  of  faith.  When  Rome  said,  "  Listen  to  the 
church,"  the  Puritan  said,  "  Listen  to  the  Bible."  When 
Rome  said,  "  The  church  has  all  authority,"  the  Puritan 
replied,  "  Our  only  authority  is  the  Bible."  When  Rome 
said,  "  The  church  is  infallible,"  the  reply  was,  "  There  is 
no  infallible  authority  but  the  Scriptures."  When  Rome 
said,  "  Take  what  I  give  and  ask  no  questions,"  the  Puritan 
said,  "  I  cannot  accept  anything  except  as  my  conscience 
allows."  It  was  in  this  way  that  the  Puritans  were  driven 
into  a  conception  of  the  Bible  which  got  them  into  num- 
berless embarrassments,  and  which  has  caused  their  de- 
scendants no  end  of  trouble.  One  extreme  begets  another. 
Rome's  exaggerated  doctrine  of  the  church  forced  the  Puri- 
tan to  accept  an  untenable  doctrine  of  Biblical  inspiration. 
Puritan  theology  is  too  confident  of  the  trustworthiness 
of  argument,  and  blunders  constantly  in  its  uses  of  the 
Scriptures. 

A  second  characteristic  of  Puritan  theology  is  its  in- 
wardness. It  moves  down  deep  in  an  inner  world.  It  is 
morbidly  introspective,  abnormally  analytical.  The  Puri- 
tan theologians  were  experts  in  analysis.  Whatever  they 
touched  was  divided  and  subdivided  and  then  divided 
several  times  again.  They  had  a  fondness  for  tracing 
relations,  and  a  passion  for  subtle  distinctions.  They  saw 
that  the  decrees  of  God  are  of  different  kinds  and  they 
delighted  in  showing  the  distinction  between  different  kinds 
of  faith,  and  between  various  kinds  of  grace.  The  spiri- 
tual processes  of  salvation  were  traced  with  microscopic 
thoroughness,  and  every  movement  of  the  soul  was  labeled 
and  catalogued.  The  differences  between  justification  and 
conversion,    and    between    conversion    and    regeneration, 

[158] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

and  between  regeneration  and  sanctification,  these  were 
matters  of  cardinal  importance  to  be  unfolded  in  sermons 
and  elaborated  in  books.  Puritan  theologians  became 
specialists  in  metaphysics  and  dialectics.  To  dissect  and 
classify  all  the  contents  of  the  soul  was  their  joy.  In  this 
way  they  became  fearfully  prolix.  There  is  no  end  to  their 
writing.  When  we  open  their  ponderous  volumes  we  are 
appalled  by  their  teeming  amplifications  and  the  stupefy- 
ing luxuriance  of  their  psychological  diagnoses  and  fine- 
spun distinctions.  To  the  modern  mind  the  masterpieces 
of  Puritan  theology  are  insufferably  dull. 

This  inwardness  of  Puritan  theology  was  the  result  of 
the  rebound  of  the  human  mind  from  the  externalism 
of  the  mediaeval  church.  From  the  fourth  century  onward 
to  the  sixteenth,  religion  had  become  increasingly  a  cere- 
mony and  pageant.  The  worship  was  made  more  and  more 
elaborate  and  ornate.  Rite  was  added  to  rite,  form  was 
built  upon  form,  until  Christian  worship,  once  so  simple, 
became  gorgeously  complex.  Splendid  robes,  blazing 
candles,  swinging  censers,  holy  pictures,  processions,  cruci- 
fixes, relics,  pilgrimages,  bowings,  genuflexions,  prostrations, 
nothing  so  splendidly  elaborate  had  ever  been  seen  before 
upon  the  earth.  It  was  ritualism  run  to  seed,  formalism 
grown  rank  and  deadly.  When  the  revolt  came,  it  was 
certain  to  be  extreme.  Lutheranism  was  a  revolt  against 
the  externalism  of  the  Roman  church,  but  Calvinism  was  a 
revolt  more  intense.  Luther  was  born  in  a  pious  Catholic 
home,  all  his  teachers  were  devout  Catholics,  and  he  him- 
self for  several  years  was  a  faithful  monk  in  an  Augustinian 
Monastery.  He  never  quite  escaped  the  education  of  these 
early  years.  There  was  much  in  Roman  Catholic  worship 
which  he  liked.  He  liked  pictures  and  images,  crucifixes 
and  candles,  and  he  could  never  altogether  get  away  from 

[159] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

the  literal  interpretation  of  the  words,  "  This  is  my  body.'* 
He  had  a  poetic  nature.  The  mystical  element  in  him  was 
strong.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to  feel  toward  Roman 
worship  as  did  the  French  lawyer,  John  Calvin.  Calvin 
looked  upon  Roman  Catholic  worship  as  an  abomination. 
Everything  about  it  was  corrupt.  It  was  only  paganism 
intruding  itself  into  the  Christian  church,  and  making  on 
its  forehead  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Looking  on  the  whole 
mass  of  Roman  ceremonies  and  observances,  he  said :  "  Take 
them  away!  They  are  tomfoolery.  They  are  idolatry. 
When  did  Jesus  and  the  apostles  ever  authorize  such 
trumpery  as  this?  Take  them  all  away!  "  And  away  they 
were  taken.  Under  the  influence  of  Calvin,  Christianity 
became  severely  intellectual  and  spiritual.  The  sensuous 
element  in  worship  was  cut  out.  No  appeal  whatever  must 
be  made  to  the  senses.  God  is  spirit  and  they  who  worship 
him  must  worship  him  in  spirit. 

It  was  thus  that  Puritanism  plunged  into  the  soul.  The 
formal  and  the  external  had  fascination  no  longer.  The 
world  of  color  and  form  was  not  to  be  compared  with  that 
inner  world  where  the  spirit  of  man  communes  with  his 
Maker.  The  mind  was  turned  in  on  itself.  Men  began  to 
watch  themselves,  to  analyze  themselves,  and  to  keep  a 
record  of  their  thoughts  and  feelings.  Instead  of  elaborat- 
ing ceremonies  they  now  elaborated  ideas;  instead  of 
amplifying  things  physical  they  now  amplified  doctrines; 
instead  of  taking  delight  in  the  pageantry  of  the  cathedral 
they  stood  awe-struck  in  the  temple  of  their  own  soul.  Man 
is  a  pendulum,  and  swings  between  extremes.  The  church 
of  the  Middle  Ages  was  too  formal  and  external,  the  Puri- 
tans became  too  intellectual  and  retrospective. 

The  dominating  ideas  of  Puritan  theology  are  three: 
First,  the  sovereignty  of  God.     On  this  everything  else  in 

[i6o] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

Puritanism  is  built.  From  this  everything  else  flows.  The 
Puritan  saw  the  Lord  sitting  on  a  throne,  high  and  lifted 
up.  He  was  a  king,  a  monarch,  a  ruler.  He  issued  decrees. 
Men  were  his  subjects  and  he  ruled  them  with  a  will  that 
could  not  be  changed.  Whom  he  chose  to  save,  he  saved, 
whom  he  did  not  choose  was  lost.  He  was  the  God  of  the 
Old  Testament.  He  was  the  high  and  holy  God  of  Isaiah, 
the  great  and  terrible  God  of  Nehemiah,  the  God  of  the 
Psalmist  who  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day.  The 
Puritans  were  driven  to  the  Old  Testament  for  direction  in 
regard  to  the  management  of  affairs  of  state,  and  it  was  thus 
that  their  conception  of  the  Almighty  was  taken  from  the 
Old  Testament  rather  than  from  the  New. 

The  second  dominant  idea  was  the  unworthiness  of  man. 
He  is  helpless.  He  is  sinful.  He  is  vile.  He  deserves  noth- 
ing at  the  hands  of  God.  The  fall  of  man  occupies  a  central 
place  in  Puritan  theology.  The  depravity  of  the  soul  is 
one  of  the  fundamental  doctrines.  The  conception  of  man 
was  taken  largely  from  the  Old  Testament.  Favorite 
Puritan  texts  were:  "  I  abhor  myself."  "  Woe  is  me,  be- 
cause I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips."  "  I  am  a  worm."  "  I 
am  vile."  "  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity;  and  in  sin  did  my 
mother  conceive  me."  "  From  the  sole  of  the  foot  even 
unto  the  head  there  is  no  soundness  in  it;  but  wounds,  and 
bruises,  and  festering  sores."  Man,  a  sinner,  lying  helpless 
at  the  foot  of  God,  that  is  the  very  core  of  Puritan  theology. 

One  thing  more,  however,  must  be  added,  the  greatness 
of  the  soul.  Man  is  vile  because  he  has  fallen,  he  is  helpless 
because  he  has  sinned.  But  in  the  beginning  he  was  created 
in  God's  image,  and  through  God's  will  this  image  can  be 
restored.  Paradise  was  lost,  but  it  can  be  regained.  Man, 
therefore,  has  a  great  work  to  do.  He  is  an  instrument 
which  the  Almighty  designs  to  use.    He  is  a  servant  whom 

[i6i] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

the  great  God  sends  upon  his  errands.  He  has,  therefore, 
the  protection  of  God,  and  God  will  see  to  it  that  his  ser- 
vant's work  shall  be  accomplished.  Man  is  accountable 
to  God.  To  him  he  answers  for  his  belief  and  for  his  con- 
duct. Let  priests,  therefore,  stand  back.  Let  kings  also 
stand  aside.  No  matter  who  he  is,  every  man  has  access  to 
the  King  of  kings  and  the  Lord  of  lords  and  is  responsible 
to  him  alone.  It  is  here  that  you  get  Calvinism  at  its  best. 
Calvinism  lays  hold  of  man  and  lifts  him  above  the  heads  of 
priest,  bishop,  archbishop,  cardinal,  Pope,  and  leaves  him 
face  to  face  with  God.  It  carries  him  above  the  heads  of 
statesman,  prince,  king,  emperor,  potentate,  and  tells  him 
he  has  to  do  only  with  God.  With  the  coming  of  that 
vision  modern  liberty  was  born.  It  was  the  belief  that 
every  man  stands  alone  before  God  that  made  the  Ameri- 
can Republic  possible. 

The  Puritan  theology  has  ceased  to  sway  the  mind  of 
our  churches.  The  theology  of  the  twentieth  century  re- 
pudiates much  that  the  seventeenth  century  held  dear. 
We  take  our  conception  of  God  not  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment but  from  the  New,  not  from  Moses  but  from  Jesus. 
Jesus  believed  that  God  is  King,  but  he  is  a  Father-King. 
He  is  omnipotent,  but  he  has  a  father's  heart.  He  is  ma- 
jestic, but  it  is  the  majesty  of  tenderness.  He  is  august, 
but  it  is  the  augustness  of  compassion.  God  has  many 
attributes  but  the  deepest  thing  in  him  is  his  fatherhood. 
We  are  his  children.  He  owes  and  gives  us  a  father's  love. 
Our  God  is  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

We  get  our  conception  of  man  also  from  Jesus.  We  be- 
lieve that  man  is  a  sinner,  but  we  do  not  believe  that  the 
deepest  thing  in  him  is  his  sin.  He  is  by  nature  not  a 
child  of  the  devil  but  a  child  of  God.  When  he  comes  to 
himself  he  arises  and  goes  to  his  father.     Sin,  then,  is  an 

[162] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

intruder.  Transgression  is  unnatural.  The  roots  of  man's 
being  are  not  corrupt.  The  essence  of  human  life  is  divine. 
We  accept  all  that  the  Puritans  believed  concerning  the 
greatness  and  worth  of  the  soul,  and  we  have  a  new  appre- 
hension of  the  worth  of  societ}^  Calvinism  was  individual- 
istic in  its  philosophy  and  we  are  increasingly  socialistic. 
We  are  interested  more  and  more  in  the  social  aspects  of 
religion.  It  is  not  enough  for  a  man  to  answer  where  he  is, 
he  must  also  give  answer  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  his 
brother.  It  is  not  enough  to  love  God,  we  are  bound  also 
to  love  men.  The  theology  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress 
has  been  outgrown.  Christian  started  from  the  City  of 
Destruction  and  his  chief  desire  was  to  get  himself  into 
the  City  of  God.  He  did  not  think  of  those  around  him. 
The  modern  Christian  knows  that  he  cannot  get  into  the 
eternal  city  unless  he  takes  some  one  with  him.  To  Bun- 
yan  this  world  was  a  city  doomed  to  destruction:  to  us  it 
is  the  subject  of  redemption  and  is  going  to  be  transformed 
into  the  city  of  God.  The  world  is  not  a  wrecked  vessel 
destined  to  go  down,  only  a  few  elect  individuals  to  be 
saved  from  the  wreck,  but  the  vessel,  though  wrecked,  is 
to  be  saved  and  is  to  come  into  the  harbor  with  a  redeemed 
race  on  its  decks.  It  is  because  of  this  new  conception 
that  the  world  is  full  of  dreams  and  schemes  of  social 
betterment.  Everywhere  Christians  are  planning  and 
working  to  make  a  better  world.  Never  has  the  missionary 
movement  been  so  mighty  as  it  is  today,  and  never  before 
have  there  been  so  many  Christians  interested  in  social, 
political  and  industrial  reform.  Men  are  organizing  against 
the  saloon,  against  gambling,  against  oppression  of  the 
wage-earner,  against  militarism  and  war.  We  are  coming 
to  believe  that  this  is  God's  world  and  that  there  is  nothing 
evil  in  it  which  cannot  be  pulled  down. 

[163] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Our  new  theology  is  in  part  due  to  our  new  conception 
of  the  Scriptures.  The  Puritan  idea  of  the  Bible  has  gone 
forever.  That  idea  was  that  the  Bible  is  a  solid  book,  made 
of  a  single  piece,  equally  valuable  in  its  every  part.  All  its 
books  are  equally  inspired  and  every  sentence  expresses 
the  clear  and  final  word  of  God.  That  idea  has  been  driven 
out  by  the  idea  of  development.  We  now  see  that  every- 
thing progresses,  including  revelation  itself.  The  illumina- 
tion of  the  Hebrew  mind  was  progressive.  Prophets  and  law- 
givers spake  in  divers  manners  and  with  different  degrees 
of  knowledge  and  authority.  We  do  not  reach  the  supreme 
light  until  we  come  to  Jesus.  He  is  the  only  one  to  whom 
we  are  to  listen  for  the  final  word.  All  the  moralities  of  the 
Old  Testament  must  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ.  Everything  contrary  to  his  spirit  is  not  according 
to  the  mind  of  God.  And  thus  we  are  saved  from  the 
perplexities  of  our  fathers.  They  were  always  defending 
indefensible  things  in  the  Scriptures,  or  apologizing  for 
things  which  shocked  the  Christian  conscience.  We  do  not 
apologize  for  or  defend  these  things.  We  simply  drop  them 
out.  We  care  for  them  no  longer.  They  are  not  God's 
word  to  us.  We  point  to  Jesus,  saying:  "  Here  is  God's 
well  beloved  Son,  hear  ye  him." 

Has,  then,  the  Puritan  theology  passed  away?  If  by 
Puritan  theology  you  mean  the  five  points  of  Calvinism, 
the  answer  must  be.  Yes.  Particular  predestination, 
limited  atonement,  natural  inability,  irresistible  grace,  the 
perseverance  of  the  saints,  these  are  doctrines  no  longer 
preached  from  the  pulpit,  and  if  they  were  preached,  no 
one  would  care  to  hear  them.  The  intellectual  forms  of 
one  age  will  never  satisfy  its  successor.  Every  generation 
must  formulate  its  own  theology.  The  Puritans  thought 
out  theirs  and  we  must  think  out  ours.     But  the  soul  of 

[  164  ] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

Puritan  theology  can  never  pass  away.  The  power  of  this 
theology  lay  in  its  three  dominant  visions:  the  vision  of 
the  majesty  and  holiness  and  sovereignty  of  God,  the  un- 
worthiness  and  impotence  and  sinfulness  of  man,  and  the 
immeasurable  worth  and  high  destiny  of  the  human  soul. 
Calvinism  in  its  fundamental  doctrines  has  passed  into  the 
blood  of  the  Christian  church,  there  to  remain  forever. 

It  is  easy  to  criticise  the  thought  of  men  who  lived  three 
hundred  years  ago,  and  to  make  merry  with  their  errors 
and  their  limitations,  but  before  you  jeer  at  the  Puritan 
theology,  remember  the  kind  of  men  it  made  and  the 
mighty  victories  it  won.  It  passed  like  great  drops  of  iron 
into  the  blood  of  men,  turning  their  faces  to  flint  and  their 
weakness  into  the  strength  of  Titans.  It  made  Calvin 
and  enabled  him  to  convert  the  little  Republic  of  Geneva 
into  a  School  of  Morals  for  all  Europe.  It  made  John 
Knox  and  enabled  him  to  stand  up  against  Queen  Mary 
and  to  convert  half-civilized  Scotland  into  one  of  the  ruling 
countries  of  the  world.  It  braced  the  heart  of  William  the 
Silent  and  made  half-drowned  Holland  unconquerable  by 
all  the  power  of  Spain.  It  filled  the  soul  of  Cromwell  and 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  fling  from  the  English  throne  a 
king  who  believed  he  had  a  divine  right  to  govern  wrong. 
It  set  up  on  the  ruins  of  monarchy  a  commonwealth,  and 
broke  forever  the  power  of  the  traditions  of  despotism  on 
English  soil.  It  sustained  the  hearts  of  the  Christian 
fathers  on  their  long  and  desolate  voyage  across  the  At- 
lantic, and  it  inspired  them  to  write  their  immortal  compact 
in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower.  The  initial  words  are,  "  In 
the  name  of  God,  Amen."  It  was  when  that  line  was  writ- 
ten that  American  history  really  began.  It  nerved  men  in 
the  wilderness  to  believe  that  there  could  be  a  Church  with- 
out a  bishop  and  a  State  without  a  king.     If  it  be  true,  as 

[165] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Jesus  says,  that  by  their  fruits  we  are  to  judge,  then  by  the 
fruits  of  the  Puritan  theology  we  must  conclude  there 
was  something  in  it  more  than  error,  and  more  than  the 
idle  speculations  of  narrow  and  benighted  minds. 

One  of  our  greatest  debts  to  the  Puritans  is  that  they 
taught  us  the  value  of  clear  thinking  on  the  data  of  religion. 
They  believed  in  theology  and  made  it  the  queen  of  all  the 
sciences.  The  queen  it  must  evermore  remain.  It  is  a 
strange  notion  which  has  seized  certain  persons  that  it 
matters  not  what  one  thinks,  and  that  life  is  not  in- 
fluenced by  what  one  believes.  The  Puritans  were  incapable 
of  entertaining  a  notion  so  preposterous.  Everything  in 
the  long  run  depends  on  what  men  think.  Ideas  are  forces, 
and  they  are  the  ruling  forces  of  the  world.  The  world's 
conduct  is  moulded  by  the  world's  belief,  and  the  church's 
life  is  marred  or  strengthened  by  its  theology.  One  of  the 
weaknesses  of  the  modern  pulpit  is  that  it  is  not  theological 
enough.  It  does  not  deal  sufficiently  with  the  intellectual 
interpretation  of  the  great  facts  of  religion.  It  is  not 
enough  for  preachers  to  expect  men  to  read  the  Bible.  Men 
must  know  what  the  Bible  is,  and  why  it  is  worth  reading, 
and  what  reasons  there  are  for  thinking  it  contains  a  mes- 
sage which  the  human  race  would  do  well  to  heed.  A  man 
who  thinks  is  bound  to  have  a  doctrine  of  inspiration.  It 
is  not  enough  to  urge  men  to  believe  on  Jesus,  and  leave 
the  matter  there.  They  must  know  who  Jesus  is,  and  why 
it  is  important  to  listen  to  what  he  says.  It  is  not  enough 
to  persuade  men  to  accept  the  fact  of  Jesus'  death.  Every- 
thing depends  on  the  interpretation  of  that  event.  What 
connection  had  that  death  with  you?  In  what  relation 
does  it  stand  to  the  race  of  men?  What  place  has  that 
death  in  God's  government  of  this  world?  It  is  only  by 
interpreting  the  fact  of  the  death  of  Jesus  that  one  gets 

[i66] 


THE  PURITAN  THEOLOGY 

out  of  it  an  energy  to  brace  the  heart  in  the  days  of  trouble, 
and  a  force  to  curb  the  power  and  cleanse  the  guilt  of  sin. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say,  Do  this,  and  Do  that,  for  the  soul 
is  strengthened  for  the  doing  of  difficult  and  dangerous 
duties  only  by  being  fed  on  truth.  The  men  who  have 
made  and  guided  the  Christian  church  are  men  whose 
minds  have  worked  their  way  to  clear-cut  conclusions  as  to 
the  significance  of  the  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus  and  the 
meaning  of  the  phenomena  which  spiritual  experience 
brings  to  view.  It  is  one  of  the  causes  of  our  lukewarmness 
and  inefficiency  that  we  do  not  think  enough  about  God 
and  of  our  relation  to  him.  If  church  members  had  clearer 
ideas  of  what  God  is  and  how  God  works,  and  what  God 
wants,  their  hope  and  joy  would  be  immeasurably  aug- 
mented. The  Puritan  says  to  us:  "  Think!  Use  your 
mind  in  your  religion.  Make  your  way  out  to  definite 
conclusions.  Build  up  in  yourself  solid  and  vital  convic- 
tions. Set  your  mind  to  work  on  the  subject  matter  of 
revelation,  and  formulate  a  conception  of  God  and  man, 
of  duty  and  destiny,  which  will  satisfy  the  reason  and  both 
calm  and  invigorate  the  heart."  It  is  one  of  the  high  dis- 
tinctions of  the  Puritan  that  he  had  a  theology,  and  one  of 
the  highest  services  he  can  render  to  our  modern  world 
is  to  induce  us  who  profess  to  follow  Jesus  to  work  out  a 
theology  of  our  own. 


[167] 


X 

THE  PURITAN   CONSCIENCE^ 

"  /  have  lived  in  all  good  conscience  before  God  until  this  day.'*  — 
Acts  18  : 1. 

It  was  two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  years  ago  this  very 
week  that  a  Httle  company  of  people  landed  on  the  coast 
of  Massachusetts  who  have  left  a  deep  impression  upon  all 
the  history  of  this  Western  World.  These  people  were 
representatives  of  a  large  body  of  men  and  women  differing 
from  one  another  in  many  respects,  but  having  certain 
fundamental  things  in  common,  living  in  different  countries 
and  known  under  various  names,  being  called  Huguenots 
in  France,  and  the  Reformed  in  Holland,  and  Puritans  in 
England  and  Scotland.  It  has  been  my  custom  for  a  good 
many  years  to  think  with  you  on  one  of  the  Sunday  morn- 
ings of  each  December  about  some  trait  of  the  Puritan  mind 
and  temper,  some  phase  of  the  Puritan  character  and  career. 
I  have  done  this  because  I  deem  it  highly  important  that 
we  maintain  living  connection  with  the  past,  and  that  in 
these  hurried  days  we  take  time  occasionally  to  commune 
with  the  spirits  of  the  mighty  men  of  the  years  that  are 
gone. 

There  are  four  groups  of  men  who  have  in  large  measure 
created  the  world  in  which  we  are  living.  The  first  company 
is  the  Hebrew  Prophets,  those  deep-eyed  servants  of  God, 
who  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era  announced  the  ethical  principles  by  which  the  civil- 
ized world  has  agreed  to  regulate  its  life.     The  second 

1  Dec.  19,  1909. 

[i68] 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

company  is  the  Apostles  —  the  men  who  in  the  first  century 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  third 
group  is  the  Reformers,  the  religious  leaders  who  in  the 
sixteenth  century  broke  the  spell  of  a  lower  interpretation 
of  the  Christian  religion,  and  shattered  forever  the  au- 
thority of  an  institution  which  had  proved  recreant  to  its 
trust.  The  fourth  body  of  worldmakers  is  the  Puritans, 
the  men  who,  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  the  Reformers, 
carried  new  ideas  into  the  political  realm,  reconstructing 
the  constitution  of  the  English  State,  and  founding  in  the 
new  world  free  communities  which  became  in  time  a  mighty 
factor  in  the  building  of  the  American  Republic. 

All  these  four  groups  of  men  were  alike  in  two  respects  — 
they  all  were  hated.  The  prophets  were  always  the  most 
unpopular  men  in  Israel.  The  writer  to  the  Hebrews  was 
true  to  history  when,  in  speaking  of  the  religious  leaders  of 
his  race,  he  said,  "  They  wandered  in  deserts  and  in  moun- 
tains, in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth ;  they  were  destitute, 
tormented,  afflicted."  There  was  tragic  truth  in  the  words 
of  Jesus  addressed  by  him  to  the  men  of  his  time:  "  Your 
fathers  murdered  the  prophets  and  you  are  whitewashing 
their  tombs."  The  apostles,  like  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
were  despised  and  rejected.  To  use  an  expression  of  St. 
Paul,  they  were  ''  the  offscouring  of  all  things."  All  of 
them  with  a  solitary  exception  met  a  violent  death.  Their 
names  were  held  in  execration.  The  Reformers  also  aroused 
the  venomous  hostility  of  the  world.  Luther  and  Calvin 
and  Latimer  and  Knox  were,  during  their  lifetime,  covered 
with  mountains  of  calumny  and  abuse,  and  in  the  great 
libraries  of  the  world  there  are  scores  of  volumes  in  which 
these  servants  of  humanity  are  held  up  to  contumely  and 
execration.  The  Puritans  of  the  seventeenth  century,  like 
the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth,  were  a  target  for  the  abuse 

[169] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

of  their  fellows.  To  many  men  then  living  they  were 
savages  or  devils,  and  in  many  quarters  the  work  of  vilifica- 
tion has  extended  down  to  the  present  hour.  All  four 
groups  of  men  were  alike  in  this  —  they  all  wore  crowns 
of  thorns. 

They  were  also  alike  in  the  fact  that  they  all  were  mighty. 
They  all  left  their  finger-prints  on  the  body  of  the  world's 
life.  The  Hebrew  prophets,  Amos  and  Hosea,  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah,  drove  their  ethical  ideas  so  deeply  into  the  gray 
matter  of  the  brain  of  the  race  that  nothing  can  ever  dis- 
lodge them.  The  apostles  were  giants  who  turned  the  world 
upside  down  and  kindled  a  fire  that  still  is  raging.  Where- 
ever  the  gospel  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  preached  the  names 
of  the  apostles  will  be  mentioned  with  honor.  They  are 
satellites  that  will  revolve  forever  around  a  sun  that  will 
never  be  extinguished.  No  matter  what  we  may  think  of 
the  Reformers  we  are  bound  to  acknowledge  that  they 
created  the  atmosphere  which  we  are  breathing  to-day, 
and  that  they  turned  the  stream  of  history  into  the  channel 
down  which  our  little  barks  are  sailing.  The  Puritans  also 
were  men  of  might.  What  vigor  they  had  in  them  we 
may  judge  from  the  elongation  of  the  hatred  which  has 
followed  them.  Men  do  not  go  back  two  hundred  years 
and  dig  up  the  corpses  of  ninnies  and  nobodies.  Only 
giants  are  dug  up  and  gibbeted  after  they  have  been  in 
their  graves  six  generations.  Nobody  will  hate  us  two 
hundred  years  from  now.  But  the  strength  of  the  Puritans 
is  best  proved  by  the  creations  of  their  genius.  They 
stamped  the  name  Puritan  upon  measures  and  institutions 
which  have  survived  to  the  present  time.  Men  are  still 
talking  about  "  the  Puritan  theology."  There  was  the- 
ology before  the  Puritans  lived,  but  they  gave  it  a  new 
tone  and  vitality.     They  made  it  different  from  all   the 

[I/O] 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

theologies  that  had  hitherto  been.  Puritan  theology  is  the 
conceptions  of  God  and  man,  duty  and  destiny,  as  those 
conceptions  were  fused  and  moulded  in  the  hot  fires  of 
the  Puritan  mind.  Men  still  speak  familiarly  of  **  the  Puri- 
tan Sabbath."  The  Sabbath  existed  long  before  the  Puri- 
tan age,  but  the  Puritans  gave  it  a  temper  which  it  had  never 
had  before.  They  laid  their  hand  upon  it  and  changed  the 
character  of  it.  The  Puritan  Sabbath  had  such  vitality 
in  it  that  even  to-day  some  people  are  afraid  that  it  may 
come  to  life  again.  Many  volumes  have  been  written  about 
the  Puritan  home.  Home  was  an  ancient  institution,  but 
the  Puritan  created  a  new  atmosphere  for  the  home,  so 
that  "  home  "  among  English-speaking  peoples  has  never 
been  quite  the  same  since  the  Puritans  threw  their  halo 
around  it.  Men  still  discuss  the  Puritan  conscience  as 
though  it  was  something  quite  distinct  from  all  the  other 
kinds  of  conscience  which  history  has  produced.  We  take 
it  for  granted  that  it  is  something  unique,  and  that  even 
now  it  is  a  factor  in  the  world's  life.  The  Puritan  con- 
science —  let  us  think  about  it  this  morning.  Let  us  call 
the  Puritans  up  before  us  and  ask  them  to  defend  them- 
selves. If  you  listen  attentively  you  will  hear  them  saying 
what  Paul  said  when  he  was  arraigned  by  his  countrymen 
and  compelled  to  defend  himself:  ''We  have  lived  in  all 
good  conscience  before  the  face  of  God." 

Whence  came  this  conscience  which  was  peculiar  to  the 
Puritan?  It  came  from  a  reverent  study  of  the  Scriptures. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  no  printing  press.  Bibles 
were  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  clergy  and  the  rich. 
The  common  people  had  no  books.  But  the  Reformers, 
aided  by  the  printing  press,  gave  the  Bible  to  the  people. 
A  certain  class  of  the  people  seized  upon  the  book  with 
avidity;    they  pored  over  its  pages  day  and  night;    they 

[  171  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

devoured  it.  Out  of  the  Bible  they  got  a  new  conception 
of  God.  In  the  writings  of  the  prophets  and  apostles  they 
learned  that  God  is  holy  love,  that  He  has  created  man  in 
His  image,  given  him  a  piece  of  work  to  do  and  will  call  him 
to  give  an  account  of  his  stewardship  on  the  last  great  day. 
It  was  this  new  conception  of  God  that  created  the  Puritan 
conscience.  Man's  moral  nature  thrilled  with  a  new  life. 
Under  the  fresh  light  that  fell  on  it,  man's  moral  sense 
rose  to  a  new  stature  in  the  presence  of  a  moral 
God.  Conscience  is  ever  dependent  on  one's  concep- 
tion of  the  Eternal.  If  the  conception  of  God  be  high, 
then  man's  conscience  has  high  standards  of  conduct. 
Wherever  the  idea  of  God  is  low,  there  the  ideas  of 
morality  are  loose. 

This  fact  should  warn  us  to  beware  of  certain  definitions 
of  conscience  which  are  current.  For  instance,  it  is  often 
said  that  conscience  is  "  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul  of 
man  "  —  or  that  it  is  "a  divine  dictator  in  the  soul,  in- 
fallibly deciding  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong."  All 
such  definitions  are  erroneous,  and  being  erroneous  they 
are  mischievous  and  may  prove  fatal.  Conscience  is  not 
God's  voice  in  the  soul,  nor  does  it  infallibly  tell  us  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong.  Conscience  is  a  faculty  of  the 
mind,  an  organ  of  the  soul  —  you  can  educate  it,  train  it, 
cultivate  it;  or  you  can  pervert  it,  dwarf  it,  starve  it.  God 
is  in  the  moral  sense,  but  the  sense  itself  is  not  God.  The 
voice  of  God  is  mixed  with  human  feelings  and  opinions 
and  traditions.  A  man's  moral  nature  can  be  educated,  and 
conscience  therefore  is  a  faculty  the  value  of  whose  judg- 
ments depends  upon  its  enlightenment  and  the  state  of 
culture  to  which  it  has  attained.  You  cannot  educate  the 
voice  of  God,  but  you  can  educate  the  conscience.  Con- 
science in  different  men  may  say  a  hundred  different  things, 

[  172] 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

but  the  voice  of  God  speaks  but  one  thing.  Paul  was  always 
a  conscientious  man.  He  was  conscientious  even  when  he 
had  Christians  scourged  ^nd  put  to  death.  But  his  con- 
scientiousness did  not  save  him  from  regret  and  remorse, 
for  when  his  conscience  once  became  enlightened  he  saw 
that  his  past  life  had  been  a  colossal  blunder.  When  you  see 
him  with  his  face  in  the  dust,  if  you  go  near  enough  to  him 
to  hear  what  he  is  saying,  you  will  hear  him  exclaim  that 
he  is  the  chief  of  sinners  and  not  fit  to  be  called  an  apostle 
because  he  persecuted  the  Church  of  God.  Englishmen 
had  a  conscience  before  the  Bible  was  given  to  the  people, 
but  in  the  masses  of  men  it  was  undeveloped,  in  many  cases 
ignorant  and  defiled.  For  centuries  the  Bible  had  been 
lost.  Because  the  Bible  had  been  lost,  men  had  lost  the 
vision  of  Almighty  God  in  Christ.  The  world  was  filled 
with  the  images  of  the  saints,  and  Christians  were  instructed 
to  pray  to  the  holy  men  and  holy  women  who  in  ages  past 
had  served  God  and  blessed  the  world.  Above  the  saints 
came  the  Apostles,  and  Christians  prayed  to  the  saints  in 
order  that  they  might  influence  the  Apostles  to  secure  for 
them  the  blessings  which  they  craved.  Above  the  saints 
came  the  Virgin  Mary,  to  whom  the  Apostles  prayed,  and 
above  the  Virgin  Mary  stood  Jesus,  to  whom  the  Virgin 
Mary  spoke.  And  above  the  face  of  Jesus,  completely 
hidden  in  the  clouds,  was  the  face  of  the  Almighty  Father, 
so  far  away  that  the  common  people  did  not  dare  to  pray 
to  him  at  all.  They  prayed  to  the  saints,  the  saints  prayed 
to  the  Apostles,  the  Apostles  prayed  to  the  Virgin  and  the 
Virgin  prayed  to  Christ.  It  was  through  a  long  chain  of 
intermediaries  that  the  wishes  of  the  people  made  their 
way  to  God.  The  result  was  a  widespread  degradation. 
When  men  lose  the  face  of  God  they  do  not  see  clearly  ethi- 
cal distinctions.     In  a  world  peopled  by  the  images  of  the 

[^73] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

saints  men  grew  careless  of  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong.  But  when  men  began  to  read  the  Bible  and 
were  brought  into  the  presence  of  a  holy  God  their  eyes 
were  purged  and  they  began  to  ask  the  question,  "  Is 
this  thing  right?  "  They  held  every  action  up  against  a 
right  God,  and  if  it  did  not  harmonize  with  God  they  would 
not  do  it.  They  would  do  only  those  things  that  they  felt 
would  be  pleasing  unto  God.  The  distinction  between 
pleasure  and  duty  had  well-nigh  faded  out.  Indeed,  duty 
had  in  many  regions  become  a  hollow  name.  But  with 
this  new  conception  of  God  came  a  new  conception  of  duty : 
Duty  is  something  owed  to  God,  a  debt  that  must  be  paid  — 
and  instead  of  being  irksome  it  became  glorious.  The  men 
who  caught  sight  of  God's  face  became  interested  in  right- 
eousness and  devotees  of  duty. 

The  result  was  that  little  by  little  these  people  made 
themselves  conspicuous.  They  refused  to  go  with  the 
crowd.  The  crowd  was  going  in  a  certain  direction,  but 
these  men  said,  "  We  cannot  go  with  you  because  it  is 
not  right."  The  crowd  was  doing  certain  things,  and  these 
men  said,  "  We  cannot  do  them,  because  these  things  are  not 
right."  At  first  they  became  conspicuous  in  the  Church. 
Parliaments  and  princes  had  decreed  that  certain  things 
should  be  done  in  the  Church.  These  men  said:  "We 
cannot  do  them  because  they  are  not  right.  Our  con- 
science will  not  allow  us  to  do  them.  We  can  do  nothing 
contrary  to  the  will  of  God."  Making  themselves  con- 
spicuous in  the  Church,  they  began  at  last  to  show  the  same 
disposition  in  the  State.  When  kings  gave  their  commands, 
these  men  said:  "  We  cannot  obey  you,  because  you  com- 
mand what  is  not  right.  Obedience  is  impossible  because 
it  goes  contrary  to  our  conscience.  We  must  answer  to  our 
conscience  and  to  God,  and  not  to  man."    It  is  at  that  point 

[174] 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

that  you  find  the  explanation  of  the  English  Revolution  of 
1640,  and  also  the  explanation  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion of  1776.  These  men  who  were  so  particular  about 
doing  the  thing  that  was  right,  and  who  ever  strove  to  do 
their  duty,  excited  the  contempt  and  derision  of  many 
who  passed  by.  One  day  somebody  said,  with  a  scoff, 
''  Puritan!  "  It  was  a  piece  of  mud  flung  at  the  head  of  a 
conscientious  man,  and  the  mud  stuck.  It  was  like  another 
bit  of  mud  flung  at  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Somebody  said  of 
him  one  day,  "  The  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners,"  and 
the  mud  stuck.  The  rains  of  the  centuries  have  not  been 
able  to  wash  it  away.  And  that  was  like  another  piece  of 
mud  thrown  at  the  followers  of  Jesus  at  Antioch.  Some- 
body one  day  hissed  after  them  as  they  went  through  the 
street,  "  Christians!  "  It  was  a  piece  of  mud  and  it  stuck. 
But  strange  to  say  all  these  bits  of  mud  have  been  con- 
verted into  crowns  of  glory. 

But  the  Puritan  conscience  had  the  defects  of  its  qualities. 
In  a  world  like  this  it  is  impossible  to  cultivate  any  faculty 
without  running  the  risk  of  overdoing.  Many  of  us  know 
the  Puritan  conscience  best  because  of  its  eccentricities, 
its  exaggerations,  its  perversions,  its  excesses.  The  Puritan 
party  was  made  up  of  a  large  number  of  people,  and  there 
were  different  shades  and  grades  of  Puritans.  A  party 
as  a  whole  always  suffers  because  of  the  delinquencies  or 
peculiarities  of  any  of  its  members.  More  than  once  the 
republican  party  has  suffered  because  of  the  folly  or  dis- 
honesty of  a  group  of  prominent  republicans,  and  not  at 
all  infrequently  has  the  democratic  party  been  obliged  to 
pay  a  heavy  penalty  because  of  the  rascality  or  foolishness 
of  prominent  democrats.  The  Puritan  party  has  been 
subjected  to  constant  misunderstanding  and  criticism  be- 
cause of  the  oddities  and  lapses  of  certain  individual  mem- 

[I7S] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

bers  of  that  party.  There  were  Puritans  who  carried  their 
conscientiousness  to  unwarrantable  lengths.  Any  virtue, 
no  matter  what,  can  be  exaggerated  into  a  vice.  Justice 
is  a  virtue,  but  if  you  push  it  too  far  you  become  cruel. 
You  ought  to  be  generous,  but  if  you  are  too  generous  you 
become  a  spendthrift.  Economy  is  a  virtue,  but  if  carried 
too  far  it  becomes  parsimoniousness.  A  man  ought  to 
be  brave,  but  if  he  is  too  brave  he  becomes  reckless.  Every- 
one ought  to  be  prudent,  but  if  he  is  too  prudent  he  is 
cowardly.  Frankness  is  a  good  thing,  but  if  one  is  too 
frank  he  is  boorish.  We  ought  to  be  sympathetic,  but  if 
sympathy  is  overdone  we  are  sentimental.  We  ought  to 
be  pious,  but  not  sanctimonious.  People  who  are  too  good 
are  '*  goody."  It  is  possible  to  have  "  too  much  of  a  good 
thing."  Too  much  of  a  good  thing  is  a  bad  thing.  When- 
ever you  pass  beyond  the  appointed  boundaries  of  a  virtue 
you  find  yourself  in  the  domain  of  a  vice.  A  vice  is  a  virtue 
gone  to  seed.  We  ought  to  examine  ourselves  —  some  of 
us  ought  to  do  this  more  frequently  than  we  do  —  but 
self-examination  carried  too  far  leads  to  morbidness,  and 
in  some  cases  to  insanity.  A  public  speaker  ought  to  be 
careful  of  his  speech,  but  if  he  is  too  careful  he  mars  it.  A 
full-fledged  grammatical  error,  mangling  a  sentence  by 
taking  hold  of  it  awkwardly,  dropping  out  an  entire  link 
in  the  argument,  is  not  nearly  so  bad  in  the  public  speaker 
as  a  visible  straining  after  nicety  of  expression,  a  finical 
and  fastidious  scrupulosity  in  the  use  of  words.  Education 
is  a  good  thing,  but  it  is  possible  to  be  overeducated. 
A  man  may  whet  his  intellectual  faculties  until  he  becomes 
sharp  as  a  razor,  and  like  a  razor  he  is  good  for  nothing 
but  to  cut  with.  You  all  know  people  who  are  all  edge. 
They  cut  everything  and  everybody  to  pieces.  They  never 
hear  a  bit  of  music  that  they  do  not  cut  it  to  pieces.    They 

[176  J 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

never  see  pictures  without  cutting  them  to  pieces.  Ser- 
mons and  preachers  and  public  worship  are  all  cut  into 
shreds.  The  intellectual  faculties  have  been  overeducated. 
Just  so  it  is  possible  to  be  too  conscientious.  A  man  may 
develop  his  conscience  until  it  becomes  a  nuisance.  He  may 
be  so  conscientious  that  he  may  be  miserable  himself  and 
make  all  his  neighbors  miserable,  too.  He  may  be  so  con- 
scientious as  to  paralyze  his  power  of  action.  There  are 
people  who  are  not  willing  to  confess  Christ  because  they 
are  so  conscientious.  They  have  such  a  fine  sensitiveness  as 
to  what  one  ought  to  be  if  he  is  a  Christian  that  they  refuse 
to  obey  one  of  Christ's  plain  commands.  They  are  too 
conscientious  to  join  the  church.  They  have  such  a  high 
idea  of  the  obligations  which  a  Christian  assumes  and  such 
an  exalted  sense  of  honor  as  to  what  a  church  member 
ought  to  do  that  they  simply  refuse  to  obey  one  of  the 
wishes  of  Christ.  A  man  is  always  too  conscientious  if  his 
conscience  prevents  him  from  doing  things  that  Christ 
wants  done.  An  overdeveloped  conscience  leads  into  all 
sorts  of  punctiliousness  and  pettiness  and  picayunishness. 
A  man  may  coddle  and  pamper  his  conscience  until  it 
renders  him  contemptible.  Christ  poured  his  scorn  upon 
those  punctilious,  pettifogging  Pharisees  who  went  into 
a  patch  of  weeds  in  their  garden  and  carefully  picked  out 
one  tenth  of  the  mint  and  anise  and  cummin  because  they 
were  so  anxious  to  render  a  tithe  to  God  of  all  they  possessed. 
Those  were  the  men  who  strained  at  a  gnat  and  swallowed 
a  camel.  It  is  well  to  be  careful  in  one's  eating,  but  if  one 
is  too  careful  he  brings  on  nervous  dyspepsia.  One  ought 
to  be  careful  of  his  actions,  but  if  he  is  too  careful  he  be- 
comes self-conscious  and  awkward.  One  ought  to  be  care- 
ful in  making  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong,  but 
if  he  falls  into  the  habit  of  splitting  hairs  and  making  a 

[  177  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

great  ado  about  trifles,  it  is  evidence  that  his  conscience  has 
been  developed  too  much. 

An  overdeveloped  conscience  also  leads  to  boorishness 
and,  it  may  be,  to  cruelty  and  tyranny.  A  high  degree  of 
conscientiousness  and  bigotry  have  often  gone  together. 
It  was  here  that  the  Puritan  most  frequently  failed.  The 
Puritan  was  so  sure  that  he  was  right  that  he  found  it 
difficult  to  be  courteous  to  the  man  who  had  a  different 
judgment.  To  many  a  Puritan  the  conscience  was  the 
voice  of  God  in  the  soul.  His  psychology  was  defective, 
and  because  he  identified  his  own  moral  judgment  with 
the  voice  of  God  he  had  scant  respect  for  the  man  who 
differed  from  him.  For  conscience  to  take  off  his  hat  to 
another  conscience  that  differs  from  it,  that  is  indeed  a 
high  and  rare  grace.  It  was  one  that  the  Puritans  did  not 
always  possess.  When,  therefore,  you  hear  people  speak 
disparagingly  of  the  Puritan  conscience,  they  usually  have 
in  mind  some  overdeveloped  conscience  —  a  conscience 
that  is  exceedingly  punctilious  and  excruciatingly  scrupu- 
lous, a  conscience  that  quibbles  over  trifles  and  finds 
supreme  delight  in  splitting  hairs.  Or  they  have  in 
mind  a  bigoted  conscience  —  a  conscience  that  says,  "  I 
am  the  voice  of  God,  and  every  man  who  differs 
from  me  is  wrong."  But  these  are  only  excesses  of  the 
Puritan  conscience.  The  Puritan  conscience  at  its  best 
is  a  conscience  that  has  had  its  eyes  purged  by  a  new 
vision  of  God. 

But  a  preacher  in  the  twentieth  century  need  not  dwell 
on  the  danger  of  overconscientiousness,  for  the  drift  is  in 
a  direction  entirely  opposite.  The  danger  of  our  day  is 
not  overscrupulousness,  but  unscrupulousness.  The  peril 
of  our  time  is  not  exaggerated  punctiliousness,  but  careless- 
ness in  the  making  of  distinctions  and  blindness  to  high 

[178] 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

moral  ideals.  Have  you  never  heard  a  man  say,  with  a 
chuckle:  "  He  got  there  just  the  same,  —  there  were  many 
crooked  things  which  he  did,  but  he  got  there  just  the  same. 
He  did  sundry  things  which  he  was  rather  sorry  he  had  to 
do,  but  he  got  there  "  ?  Alas,  he  got  there,  but  he  was 
smirched.  Which  would  you  prefer  to  have  said  about 
you  —  he  is  clever,  or  he  is  conscientious?  Many  of  you 
would  prefer  to  have  it  said  that  you  are  clever. 
That  would  send  you  home  smiling.  You  would  smile 
to  yourself  every  time  you  thought  about  it.  To 
be  clever  is  to  be  quite  up  to  date.  But  to  say  that 
one  is  conscientious  means  that  one  is  rather  old- 
fashioned,  and  one  would  rather  be  up  to  date  than 
old-fashioned.  Would  to  God  we  had  more  conscientious 
men  and  women. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  conscience  against  which  the 
Bible  warns  us.  There  is  what  Paul  calls  a  "  seared  " 
conscience  —  a  conscience  seared  with  a  red-hot  iron.  This 
does  not  mean  a  conscience  that  has  simply  been  rendered 
insensible  by  rubbing  over  it  a  hot  surface,  destroying  the 
delicate  nerve  pulp  of  the  soul.  Paul  had  in  his  mind's  eye 
another  picture.  It  was  the  custom  in  his  day  for  slave- 
owners to  brand  the  arms  or  backs  of  their  slaves  with  a 
hot  iron,  so  that  when  the  slaves  ran  away  they  could  be 
easily  recaptured  and  brought  back  to  their  owner.  What 
we  do  with  cattle,  slave-owners  in  the  first  century  did  with 
men.  Paul  says  that  there  are  men  who  have  the  con- 
science branded  with  a  branding  iron.  They  do  not  belong 
to  God,  the  world  has  stamped  its  mark  upon  them.  Thou- 
sands of  Americans  have  this  branded  conscience;  they 
care  nothing  for  God.  Their  master  is  public  opinion. 
Within  the  last  ten  years  we  have  had  one  nest  of  rascals 
after  another  uncovered  in  this  country,  and  what  a  squirm- 

[  179] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

ing  and  wriggling  we  have  seen  when  the  unholy  brood  has 
been  brought  into  the  light;  but  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  see  in  the  newspapers  there  has  never  been  a  solitary 
indication  of  remorse  on  the  part  of  any  one  of  the  scoun- 
drels because  he  had  sinned  against  God.  There  has  been 
a  good  deal  of  disgust  and  indignation  because  government 
has  interfered  and  made  things  unpleasant,  and  in  a  few 
cases  men  have  been  quite  overwhelmed  with  disgrace  be- 
cause their  good  name  has  been  taken  from  them,  but  not 
a  single  miscreant,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  beaten  his 
breast  and  cried  out,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner!  " 
There  is  no  vision  of  God,  there  is  no  Master  but  the  public. 
I  have  heard  men  say  that  things  are  in  better  shape  now 
than  they  were  a  few  years  ago  in  this  country,  that  be- 
cause of  the  influence  of  President  Roosevelt  business  men 
will  not  dare  to  do  to-day  what  they  were  doing  only  a  few 
years  ago.  That  means  that  there  are  men  who  will  go 
just  as  far  as  public  opinion  will  allow  them  to  go.  They 
care  nothing  at  all  for  the  laws  of  God  or  the  rights  of 
humanity,  but  will  do  anything  whatsoever  if  public  opinion 
does  not  condemn  it.  Such  men  have  a  conscience  seared 
with  a  red-hot  iron.  And  until  men  have  a  desire  to  keep 
their  conscience  void  of  offense  toward  God,  and  also  to- 
ward man,  we  have  no  ground  to  build  our  hopes  for  a  pros- 
perous or  enduring  nation. 

There  is  also  a  "  defiled  "  conscience  against  which  we 
are  put  on  our  guard.  The  defiled  conscience  is  always  a 
flabby  conscience,  the  heart  of  it  having  been  eaten  out 
by  luxury  and  self-indulgence.  It  is  the  defiled  conscience 
which  is  a  menace  to  the  strength  and  influence  of  the 
Christian  Church.  There  are  many  church  members  whose 
conscience  is  evidently  blunted  or  drugged.  When  Chris- 
tians go  with  the  crowd  to  read  slimy  novels,  and  when 

[i8o] 


THE  PURITAN  CONSCIENCE 

church  members  go  with  the  crowd  to  see  a  slimy  play, 
and  when  church  members  do  not  obey  the  rules  of  their 
church,  it  is  because  their  conscience  is  defiled.  Instead 
of  scoffing  at  the  excesses  of  the  Puritans,  or  chattering 
about  the  foibles  of  the  tall-statured  saints  of  God  who 
made  this  world  a  better  place  to  live  in,  we  ought  to  pray 
heaven  unceasingly  that  our  conscience  may  be  purged, 
and  that  we,  living  our  life  in  the  fresh  vision  of  God  in 
Christ,  may  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the  right  and 
the  wrong  and  ever  find  our  supreme  delight  in  the  doing 
of  the  things  that  we  owe  to  him. 

It  is  possible  so  to  abuse  one's  conscience  as  to  kill  it. 
The  moral  sense  may  become  so  calloused  by  the  rough 
treatment  to  which  it  is  subjected  that  the  day  will  come 
when  it  has  no  longer  the  power  of  feeling.  There  are 
men  of  whom  it  can  be  truly  said,  They  have  no  conscience. 
They  are  ever  ready  to  do  whatever  they  want  to  do,  and 
nothing  which  they  do  brings  upon  them  a  twinge  of  regret 
or  a  pang  of  remorse.  Within  the  last  week  a  tragic  event 
has  happened  —  a  king  without  a  conscience  has  gone 
into  eternity  to  stand  before  the  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords.  One  is  awestruck  when  he  tries  to  pic- 
ture to  himself  the  meeting  of  an  earthly  king  who 
had  killed  his  conscience,  standing  in  the  presence  of 
a  holy  God. 

In  a  world  like  this,  where  we  are  beset  by  temptations 
on  every  side,  and  where  it  is  so  easy  for  the  conscience  to 
become  seared  or  defiled  or  slain,  let  us  ever  and  again  turn 
our  faces  toward  those  intrepid  servants  of  the  Lord  who, 
notwithstanding  the  scorn  and  opposition  of  an  ungodly 
generation,  endeavored  to  keep  their  conscience  void  of 
offense  before  the  King  of  heaven ;  who  were  not  free  from 
foibles  and  defects,  making  mistakes  neither  insignificant 

[i8i] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

nor  few,  but  who  will  stand  out  grand  and  massive  through 
all  the  centuries  as  men  who  in  a  turbulent  and  licentious 
age  had,  in  the  words  of  Cromwell,  "  The  fear  of  God 
before  their  eyes,  and  made  some  conscience  of  what  they 
did." 


[182] 


XI 

THE   PURITAN  AND  THE   HOME  ^ 

"  The  church  in  thy  house.''  —  Philemon  2. 

On  the  Sunday  in  December  which  comes  the  nearest 
to  the  anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  it  is  my 
custom  to  draw  my  inspiration  from  some  page  of  Puritan 
history.  Readers  of  history  are  rapidly  coming  to  the  con- 
clusion expressed  long  ago  by  Lord  Macaulay  that  the 
Puritans  were  the  most  remarkable  body  of  men  which 
the  world  has  ever  produced.  And  undoubtedly  the  thing 
which  made  them  so  remarkable  was  their  religion;  for 
whatever  we  may  say  of  their  limitations,  their  short- 
comings and  their  blunders  —  and  all  these  they  had,  and 
that  too  in  abundance  —  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they 
were  above  all  other  men  religious,  keeping  the  fear  of 
God  before  their  eyes  and  making  some  conscience  of  what 
they  did.  And  because  they  were  religious  their  history 
becomes  in  a  sense  a  sacred  book  —  a  huge  and  invaluable 
Book  of  Acts  —  as  picturesque  and  as  thrilling  and  as  God- 
inspired  as  is  that  smaller  book  written  by  the  beloved 
physician  and  bound  up  with  the  writings  of  the  prophets 
and  apostles. 

We  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  word  Puritan  is  a  wider 
term  than  we  at  all  times  recognize.  We  should  not  speak 
of  the  Puritans  as  though  they  were  all  men  made  after 
the  same  fashion,  cast  in  the  same  mould.  There  were 
many  grades  and  varieties  of  Puritans,  some  of  them 
Anglicans,  some  Presbyterians,  some  Baptists,  some  Inde- 

1  Dec.  18,  1904. 

[183] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

pendents,  some  Quakers.  Some  of  them  were  Calvinists, 
and  others  were  Arminians.  It  is  not  right  to  identify  the 
Puritans  with  any  system  of  theology  or  with  any  polity  of 
church  government.  As  a  matter  of  fact  as  Puritanism 
worked  itself  out  in  life,  it  became  in  the  end  predominantly 
Calvinistic,  and  the  Puritans  who  are  best  known  to  history 
are  the  Independents  of  England,  the  Presbyterians  of 
Scotland,  and  the  founders  of  New  England.  But  theology 
and  church  polity  were  only  accidents  and  did  not  consti- 
tute the  essential  part  of  the  Puritan  movement.  Puri- 
tanism is  the  name  not  of  a  theology  or  a  system  of  church 
government,  but  the  name  of  a  certain  temper,  a  certain 
outlook,  a  certain  spiritual  passion,  a  certain  attitude  to 
the  Eternal.  The  Puritan  first  and  last  is  the  man  who  has 
a  fresh  vision  of  God,  who  has  an  abiding  sense  of  God's 
sovereignty  and  God's  holiness,  and  who  allows  this  vision 
of  the  eternal  almightiness  and  holiness  to  cleanse  his  heart 
and  shape  his  life.  Briefly  stated,  the  Puritan  is  the  man 
who  sees  God. 

In  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount  our  Lord  declares  that  if 
we  seek  God  first  and  his  righteousness  all  necessary  things 
shall  be  added  to  us.  So  it  has  proved  in  history.  Men  who 
saw  God  high  and  lifted  up  sitting  on  his  throne  gazed 
with  such  steadfast  eyes  upon  the  ineffable  glory  that 
when  they  looked  to  earth  again  their  eyes  were  dulled  to 
the  importance  of  terrestrial  distinctions.  They  could 
no  longer  recognize  the  contrast  which  the  world  had 
always  made  between  the  king  and  his  subjects.  Kings  had 
for  centuries  been  regarded  as  divine.  No  matter  what  they 
did  their  deeds  were  right.  But  men  who  had  once  seen 
the  King  of  heaven  and  had  come  to  feel  their  absolute 
dependence  on  his  will  and  their  accountability  to  him  for 
their  conduct,  could  now  no  longer  accept  the  theory  that 

[184] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

kings  have  a  divine  right  to  govern  wrong.  This  new 
vision  working  itself  out  in  the  realm  of  politics  led  first 
to  the  Civil  War  in  England,  and  later  on  to  the  Revolution 
in  America.  Republicanism  in  government  was  born  in 
the  Puritan  vision  of  God.  The  world  had  long  made 
much  of  the  distinction  between  the  clergy  and  the  laity. 
A  layman  was  as  nothing  in  the  presence  of  his  bishop. 
His  bishop,  no  matter  what  his  character,  could  issue  laws, 
and  the  layman  was  under  obligations  to  obey.  A  man 
who  had  gotten  a  fresh  vision  of  the  supreme  head  of  the 
church  could  no  longer  recognize  the  authority  of  bishops 
who  did  not  show  in  their  lives  the  graces  of  the  Master. 
They  remembered  how  it  had  been  written:  "  Call  no  man 
Master.  One  is  your  Master,  even  Christ;  and  all  ye 
are  brethren."  And  with  these  words  ringing  in  their  ears 
they  proceeded  to  resist  the  authority  which  bishops  claimed 
as  all  their  own.  This  idea  working  in  the  realm  of  church 
government  resulted  first  in  Presbyterianism,  which  places 
authority  in  the  hands  of  Presbyters,  part  of  whom  are 
clergymen  and  part  of  whom  are  laymen;  and  later  on  it 
worked  itself  out  into  the  Congregationalism  of  New  Eng- 
land, which  puts  supreme  authority  in  the  hands  of  the 
laity.  Presbyterianism  and  Congregationalism  were  born 
in  the  Puritan  vision  of  God.  The  world  had  always  made 
much  of  the  distinction  between  rich  and  poor,  to  the  rich 
certain  privileges  belonged  to  which  the  poor  had  no  right- 
ful claim.  The  rich  man's  son  could  be  educated  while  the 
poor  man's  son  was  doomed  to  ignorance.  But  the  man  who 
had  once  seen  the  King  became  blind  to  the  distinction 
between  rich  and  poor,  and  believing  that  every  man,  no 
matter  who  he  is,  is  accountable  to  the  King,  the  Puritans 
went  on  to  say  that  every  man  must  therefore  read  the 
laws  issued  by  the  King,  and  in  order  to  read   these  laws 

[  185  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

it  is  necessary  that  every  man  should  have  an  education. 
And  so  wherever  the  Puritan  spirit  spread,  new  emphasis 
was  placed  on  schools.  Colleges  were  founded  for  the 
education  of  the  ministers  and  common  schools  established 
for  the  instruction  of  all  men's  children,  rich  and  poor. 
The  Public  School  system  of  America  was  born  in  the 
Puritan  vision  of  God.  In  the  opinion  of  the  world  there  had 
always  been  a  vast  difference  between  man  and  woman. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  world  in  every  land  and  in  every 
time  woman  had  been  either  the  toy  or  the  drudge  of  man. 
Such  she  had  been  in  Egypt,  and  no  more  was  she  in 
Athens,  and  but  little  more  was  she  in  Rome.  The  hus- 
band had  an  authority  over  his  wife  and  over  his  daughters, 
which  in  many  instances  resulted  in  degrading  them  to  the 
level  of  slaves  and  things.  But  when  men  caught  a  fresh 
vision  of  the  King  and  grasped  the  great  idea  that  every 
soul  is  accountable  to  Almighty  God,  the  old  distinction 
between  man  and  woman  faded  out,  and  both  of  them 
standing  on  the  same  level  acknowledged  their  dependence 
on  the  Eternal  and  looked  to  him  for  strength  in  the  doing 
of  their  work.  Woman  could  no  longer  be  man's  drudge, 
for  her  soul,  like  his,  was  immortal;  no  longer  could  she 
be  his  plaything  or  his  toy,  for  duty  was  now  a  greater 
word  than  pleasure.  And  out  of  this  new  conception  of 
the  dignity  of  womanhood  there  came  a  new  conception 
of  the  Christian  home.  The  home  of  our  modern  civiliza- 
tion was  born  in  the  Puritan  vision  of  God.  My  subject 
this  morning  is  the  Puritan  and  the  home. 

It  may  be  that  to  some  of  you  my  subject  may  appear 
somewhat  somber  and  uninteresting.  We  are  all  ready 
to  grant  that  the  Puritans  were  mighty  men  of  valor, 
fighting  tremendously  in  battle.  History  makes  it  clear, 
likewise,  that  they  were  indomitable  in  the  hall  of  debate. 

[i86] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

But  while  we  are  ready  to  grant  that  in  pubHc  life  they 
were  worthy  of  all  admiration,  it  may  not  be  clear  to  all 
of  us  that  they  were  praiseworthy  men  in  their  homes. 
The  impression  has  gone  abroad  that  the  Puritan  was  glum 
and  disagreeable,  that  he  was  a  "  severe  and  sour-com- 
plexioned  man,"  that  he  spoke  invariably  through  his  nose, 
that  he  was  very  strict  and  exceedingly  solemn  —  in  short, 
that  he  was  a  disagreeable  personage  with  whom  to  live. 
But  we  should  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  misled  by  the  cari- 
catures and  exaggerations  of  the  men  who  despised  the 
Puritans  because  the  Puritans  overturned  the  things  in 
which  they  delighted  and  believed.  The  foibles  and 
peculiarities  of  the  Puritans  lend  themselves  easily  to  ridi- 
cule, and  all  sorts  of  jocose  and  sarcastic  books  have  been 
written,  holding  their  peculiarities  up  to  scorn.  Any  man, 
no  matter  who  he  is,  can  be  made  ridiculous  by  a  man  who 
does  not  like  him;  and  any  age,  no  matter  what,  can  be 
rendered  disgusting  by  one  who  seizes  upon  its  most  super- 
ficial features,  allowing  all  the  deeper  and  lovelier  elements 
to  drop  out  of  sight.  There  are  papers  published  in  New 
York  City  which  give  a  totally  erroneous  idea  of  what  New 
York  life  in  the  twentieth  century  really  is.  Should  the 
people  of  five  hundred  years  from  now  glance  up  and  down 
the  columns  of  those  papers  they  would  suppose  that  New 
York  City  in  the  twentieth  century  was  a  great  aggrega- 
tion of  knaves  and  fools.  It  is  not  fair  to  judge  a  city  by  the 
flings  and  squibs  of  the  most  superficial  of  its  papers.  Nor 
is  it  fair  to  judge  the  men  and  the  women  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  from  the  funny  things  that  are 
said  about  them  by  their  foes.  The  man  who  takes  the 
trouble  to  get  into  the  real  life  of  the  Puritan  period  dis- 
covers that  he  is  in  a  world  warm  and  beautiful,  filled  with 
tenderness  and  sympathy  and  love.     There  were  homes 

[  187  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

then  out  of  which  joy  and  liberty  had  been  driven  just  as 
there  are  such  homes  to-day,  but  the  typical  Puritan  home 
was  not  a  sour  and  gloomy  place,  but  a  place  made  warm 
and  lighted  up  by  the  sweetest  affections  of  the  human 
heart.  If  you  want  to  know  of  the  Puritan  as  he  really 
existed  look  at  the  picture  of  Colonel  Hutchinson  painted 
by  his  wife.  How  noble  in  temper,  beautiful  in  disposition, 
upright  in  character  and  lofty  in  ideal,  than  whom  there 
does  not  exist  a  more  gracious  and  more  courteous  gentle- 
man to-day!  If  you  want  to  see  what  Puritan  women  were, 
look  at  the  picture  of  Mrs.  Wallington,  as  painted  by  her 
son  Nehemiah,  a  woman  in  all  respects  up  to  the  high  level 
of  womanhood  painted  in  the  Hebrew  book  of  the  Prov- 
erbs —  so  gracious  and  so  modest,  so  industrious  and  so 
thoughtful,  so  simple  and  so  human  and  so  good  that 
we  every  one  should  love  her  if  we  should  meet  her  in  our 
home  to-day.  And  some  of  that  sort  of  men  and  women, 
came  across  the  Atlantic  and  laid  the  foundations  of  New 
England.  It  is  not  necessary  to  draw  upon  our  imagination 
in  order  to  form  a  conception  of  these  people.  The  letters 
of  John  Winthrop  to  his  wife  have  been  preserved,  and  any 
one  can  read  them  who  will.  No  one  who  reads  them  will 
assert  that  love  of  husband  to  wife,  or  wife  to  husband  is 
more  beautiful,  tender  or  true  to-day  than  it  was  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  history  of  New  England.  We  can 
never  hope  to  do  the  Puritans  justice  unless  w^e  remember 
that  they  were  human,  that  they  had  their  joys  and  sor- 
rows, their  ecstasies  and  despondencies,  their  triumphs 
and  defeats,  all  of  them  very  similar  to  our  own,  and  if 
courtship  is  sweet  to-day  it  was  no  less  sweet  then,  and  if 
man's  love  for  woman  re-creates  the  world  to-day,  filling 
it  with  glories  that  cannot  be  painted,  love  did  as  much 
among  the  Puritans.    What  love  story  written  in  our  day 

[  i88  1 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

can  surpass  in  beauty  and  romance,  and  in  glow  and  tender- 
ness, the  story  of  the  courtship  of  Jonathan  Edwards?  We 
all  know  that  he  was  a  mighty  theologian,  we  forget  that 
he  was  first  of  all  a  mighty  lover.  When  Longfellow  tells 
the  story  of  the  courtship  of  Miles  Standish  he  does  not 
draw  entirely  on  his  imagination,  for  amid  all  the  hard- 
ships of  those  old  New  England  days  there  was  the  sound 
of  music  and  of  dancing,  and  human  hearts  were  joyful 
and  men's  homes  were  happy  then  as  now. 

Indeed,  the  world  never  knew  what  the  home  can  be  until 
the  Puritan  created  it.  The  way  it  came  to  be  is  full  of 
interest  to  any  one  who  likes  to  see  the  manner  in  which 
divine  institutions  grow.  There  were  several  forces  which 
worked  together  to  produce  this,  one  of  the  finest  of  all 
God's  creations,  and  among  these  forces  the  Bible  must 
be  reckoned  first.  It  was  a  great  day  for  England  and  the 
world  when  Bishop  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London,  chained  to 
the  pillars  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  six  huge  Bibles.  The 
Bible  was  something  new  in  England,  and  around  these 
Bibles  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  crowds  hung  all  day  long. 
A  man  with  good,  clear  voice  was  immediately  pressed 
into  service  and  compelled  by  the  crowd  to  read  to  them 
until  he  was  exhausted.  They  had  never  heard  such  stories, 
never  listened  to  such  poetry  and  history.  They  hung 
spellbound  upon  the  lips  of  the  reader  until  the  sun  went 
down.  But  it  was  an  equally  great  day  for  England  and 
the  world  when  a  company  of  refugees  driven  out  of  Eng- 
land by  the  cruel  hand  of  Bloody  Mary  brought  out  in 
Geneva  in  the  year  1560  a  new  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
which  became  known  throughout  the  world  as  the  Geneva 
Bible.  John  Calvin  was  the  inspirer  of  it,  and  it  was  he 
who  wrote  the  Preface  to  it.  His  brother-in-law  was  the 
chief  of  the  translators,  and  this  Geneva  Bible  had  certain 

[189] 


FOREFATHERS^  DAY  SERMONS 

excellences  which  no  preceding  Bible  ever  had.  All  its 
English  predecessors  had  been  large  in  form  and  so  expen- 
sive the  common  people  could  not  buy  them.  The  Geneva 
Bible  was  comparatively  a  little  book.  It  was  rich  in  notes 
explanatory  of  the  text.  It  had  marginal  readings  after 
the  fashion  of  our  modern  Bibles,  and  best  of  all  the  chap- 
ters were  cut  up  into  verses  so  that  it  was  easy  to  find  the 
place.  This  book  became  the  family  Bible  of  the  English 
people,  and  such  it  remained  for  fifty  years.  Before  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century  one  hundred  and  fifty  editions 
of  it  were  published,  and  even  for  a  third  of  a  century  after 
the  appearance  of  the  King  James  version  the  Geneva 
Bible  still  held  its  ground.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize, 
no  matter  how  vivid  our  imagination,  what  the  Bible  in 
the  sixteenth  century  meant  for  England.  It  was  a  new 
book.  For  us  the  book  is  old,  we  have  thumbed  it  over. 
Its  sentences  are  commonplace.  The  freshness  has  dis- 
appeared. Its  finest  beauties  no  longer  impress  us.  Its 
shining  glories  no  longer  fascinate  and  thrill  the  heart. 
But  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  Bible  was  a  new  book. 
Its  sentences  sounded  like  rich  strains  of  music  floating 
out  through  the  open  doors  of  heaven.  Its  pictures,  greater 
than  any  other  pictures  in  the  world,  filled  men's  hearts 
with  awe  and  raised  them  to  unwonted  raptures.  O  that 
for  a  moment  we  could  feel  the  power  of  a  Bible  absolutely 
new!  And  then  the  Bible  was  practically  the  only  book  in 
England.  There  were  books  in  the  libraries,  but  not  in  the 
hands  of  the  common  people.  Imagine  a  world  in  which 
there  was  no  fiction,  no  poetry  except  a  few  verses  of 
Chaucer,  no  books  of  history,  no  books  of  science,  no  books 
of  biography,  no  books  of  any  sort  whatsoever,  no  news- 
papers, no  pamphlets,  no  religious  papers,  no  missionary 
magazines,  no  tracts,   no  reports,   none  of  the  thousand 

[  190] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

publications  which  fill  the  mails  and  accumulate  upon  our 
tables.  Just  one  book  in  the  home  and  that  book  the  Bible. 
No  wonder  it  began  to  transform  men's  lives.  It  affected 
first  of  all  their  language,  they  began  to  talk  in  Biblical 
terms.  We  smile  as  we  read  their  language,  it  sounds  so 
stilted  and  so  scriptural.  It  was  natural  for  them  thus  to 
speak,  for  the  books  which  a  man  habitually  reads  are  the 
books  whose  phrases  involuntarily  slip  into  his  speech. 
The  book  affected  men's  fashion  of  dress.  It  moulded  their 
character,  it  directed  their  conduct  —  in  short  it  re-created 
the  world.  It  brought  on  reformations  and  revolutions, 
and  the  end  is  not  yet.  And  one  of  its  great  works  was  the 
cleansing  of  the  atmosphere  of  the  home. 

But  the  Bible  was  not  the  only  treasure  which  the  Puri- 
tan found.  He  not  only  found  a  book  but  he  found  a  day. 
He  found  the  Sabbath.  The  Sabbath  had  been  lost  in  Eng- 
land. It  had  long  ceased  to  be  a  holy  day.  For  generations 
it  had  been  a  holiday,  a  festival  and  a  day  of  sport.  It 
did  not  stand  out  as  the  supreme  day  of  the  week,  but  it  was 
only  one  of  many  holidays  named  after  the  saints,  and  on 
the  Lord's  day  men  had  license  to  do  many  things  for  which 
they  had  no  opportunity  on  any  other  day  of  the  week. 
But  as  soon  as  men  began  earnestly  to  study  the  Scriptures, 
they  read  the  fourth  commandment,  "  Remember  the 
Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labor 
and  do  all  thy  work.  The  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of 
the  Lord  thy  God:  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work." 
When  the  Prayer  Book  was  compiled  in  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward VI  the  English  congregations  after  the  preacher  had 
repeated  the  fourth  commandment  were  in  the  habit  of 
saying,  with  bowed  head:  ''  Lord  have  mercy  upon  us,  and 
incline  our  hearts  to  keep  this  law."  Men  repeated  those 
words  Sunday  after  Sunday,  year  after  year  until  by  and 

[191] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

by  the  commandment  took  hold  of  the  conscience,  and 
Christians  began  to  say  to  themselves,  we  must  keep  this 
law.  The  fencer  laid  aside  his  buckler,  the  archer  unbent 
his  bow,  the  dancer  removed  the  bells  from  his  legs,  and 
instead  of  playing,  men  began  to  read  the  book.  It  was 
in  the  year  1595  that  an  Anglican  minister,  Nicholas 
Bound,  brought  out  the  first  edition  of  the  book  which  was 
destined  to  have  a  profounder  influence  on  the  thought  and 
life  of  the  world  than  almost  any  other  book  of  that  cen- 
tury. The  book  had  an  extended  title,  the  first  phrase  in 
which  was,  "  The  True  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath."  The 
book  at  once  stirred  up  furious  opposition.  The  Arch- 
bishop endeavored  to  suppress  it,  and  many  copies  were 
burned,  but  in  the  year  1606  an  enlarged  edition  was  pub- 
lished and,  in  spite  of  the  most  furious  opposition  of  the 
church  authorities,  the  book  was  scattered  everywhere 
and  read  with  eagerness  by  all  who  desired  to  know  the 
meaning  of  the  fourth  commandment.  King  James  in 
order  to  counteract  the  Puritan  influence  had  published 
a  book  of  sports  stating  the  various  forms  of  recreation 
which  were  allowable  on  Sunday.  And  it  was  the  republi- 
cation of  this  book  by  Laud  in  1633  that  stirred  the  Puri- 
tans of  England  to  new  resistance,  and  sent  other  thousands 
of  them  across  the  sea.  Ten  years  after  its  publication 
Laud's  book  was  ordered  burned  by  the  common  hang- 
man, by  the  Puritans  who  had  at  that  time  come  into  power. 
In  the  first  place  then  we  have  a  home  book,  and  in  the 
second  place  we  have  a  home  day;  a  day  for  the  book  and 
a  book  for  the  day.  A  day  and  a  book  working  together 
created  an  atmosphere  in  which  new  domestic  graces  burst 
into  bloom. 

When  a  man  has  the  Bible  and  a  free  day  on  which  to 
read  it,  he  is  sure  to  discover  things  which  have  hitherto 

[  192  ] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

escaped  his  attention.  As  soon  as  men  studied  the  Bible 
with  care  it  was  borne  in  upon  them  that  woman  has  a 
place  in  the  divine  plan  which  man  had  attempted  to  take 
from  her.  In  the  first  place  the  Savior  of  the  world  was  born 
of  a  woman.  Throughout  his  earthly  ministry  he  was 
attended  by  faithful  women.  It  was  to  women  that  he 
spoke  on  the  Via  Dolorosa.  It  was  to  a  woman  that  he 
spoke  while  hanging  on  the  cross.  It  was  to  a  woman  that 
he  appeared  first  after  his  resurrection,  and  in  the  apostolic 
prayer-meeting  on  which  the  Holy  Spirit  fell,  women  sat 
side  by  side  with  the  men.  Paul's  great  declaration  to  the 
Galatians  seems  to  express  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  in 
regard  to  women:  "  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  bond 
nor  free,  male  nor  female,  but  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus." 
And  along  with  this  new  conception  of  woman  men  gained 
a  new  conception  of  themselves,  they  learned  the  beauty 
and  the  necessity  of  self-control.  And  thus,  little  by  little, 
living  in  the  fear  of  God  woman  became  the  queen  of  man's 
heart,  and  as  soon  as  she  became  enthroned  in  his  heart 
she  became  the  creator  of  his  home.  Neither  a  doll  nor  a 
drudge  can  make  a  home,  home  is  the  creation  of  a  queen. 
Puritanism  finding  the  Bible  and  then  finding  the  Sabbath, 
elevated  woman  to  a  position  in  which  it  was  possible  for 
her  to  give  a  new  glory  to  home. 

It  is  interesting  to  watch  the  home  when  once  created, 
working  its  way  out  into  literature  and  into  art.  The 
ancients  never  painted  any  pictures  of  home.  There  were 
artists  in  Egypt,  Assyria,  Babylonia  and  Greece,  but  no 
artist  in  either  of  those  countries  has  left  us  a  picture  of  the 
home.  They  painted  gods  and  demigods,  kings  and  war- 
riors, but  never  did  they  create  a  picture  of  the  home. 
Nor  did  the  mediaeval  painters  —  those  men  of  genius 
whom  we  are  proud  to  call  the  old  masters  —  take  delight 

[  193] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

in  picturing  the  home.  There  was  only  one  family  which 
had  a  fascination  for  their  brush,  and  that  was  the  Holy 
Family.  There  was  only  one  mother  whom  they  delighted 
to  place  upon  the  canvas,  and  that  was  the  Virgin  Mary. 
It  was  not  until  we  come  to  Holland  in  the  days  of  the  Puri- 
tans that  we  find  painters  beginning  to  paint  domestic 
scenes.  Home  life  took  on  a  new  glory  in  Holland  after 
it  had  broken  away  from  the  grip  of  Spain,  and  Dutch 
painters  turning  their  back  upon  warriors  and  battles  now 
began  to  vie  with  one  another  in  portraying  the  quiet 
glories  of  home.  From  the  sixteenth  century  until  now 
the  home  scenes  have  been  increasing  until  in  all  of  our  art 
galleries  many  of  the  best  and  most  interesting  paintings 
are  those  which  give  us  the  interior  of  the  home.  It  has 
been  working  its  way  out  into  music.  Many  of  our  sweetest 
songs  are  those  that  tell  us  of  home.  I  heard  Patti  at  the 
noon  of  her  fame  and  her  power  sing  to  an  audience  of 
five  thousand  people  "  Home  Sweet  Home,"  and  there 
was  scarcely  a  dry  eye  in  the  house.  A  man's  heart  is 
dead  that  does  not  respond  to  the  memories  and  associa- 
tions of  home.  The  word  has  enshrined  itself  in  the  heart 
of  many  of  our  hymns.  It  has  become  one  of  the  great 
words  of  religion.  It  was  Puritanism  that  baptized  it  into 
the  name  of  Christ.  We  have  seized  upon  various  names 
by  means  of  which  to  express  our  idea  of  heaven,  but  the 
one  word  in  all  the  language  which  seems  best  to  satisfy 
the  heart  and  to  tell  what  we  desire  for  all  our  loved  ones 
is  that  little,  dear  word  home.  And  when  one  we  have 
loved  leaves  us  and  we  want  to  tell  where  he  has  gone,  the 
sweetest  and  most  satisfying  sentence  which  our  lips  can 
speak  is,  "  He  has  gone  home." 

Will   the  Puritan  home  stand  the  disintegrating  forces 
which  are  now  arrayed  against  it?     The  home  is  subject 

[  194  ] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

to  the  greatest  strain  to  which  it  has  been  subject  since  the 
world  began.  All  sorts  of  forces  seem  to  conspire  together 
to  wreck  this,  the  foundation  stone  of  our  civilization.  Our 
industrial  system  seems  to  be  opposed  to  it.  The  multi- 
plication of  machinery  appears  to  have  a  tendency  to  break 
it  down.  Our  women,  married  and  unmarried,  are  in  ever 
increasing  numbers  being  driven  into  gainful  occupations. 
The  expensiveness  of  living  is  constantly  increasing,  and 
in  order  to  meet  household  expenses  it  seems  to  be  necessary 
for  women  to  become  wage-earners.  Children  are  more 
and  more  scattered  in  all  directions  in  order  that  they  too 
may  earn  an  income.  In  the  olden  days  father  and  mother, 
brothers  and  sisters  all  worked  together  under  the  same 
roof  and  on  the  same  farm,  but  in  our  modern  world  father 
goes  one  way,  mother  goes  another  way,  each  child  goes 
still  another  way,  and  thus  throughout  the  day,  separated 
and  scattered,  each  one  does  his  task,  returning  at  night  to 
a  place  that  is  not  really  a  home  but  a  place  in  which  to 
sleep.  City  life  is  waging  a  tremendous  warfare  against 
the  integrity  of  the  home.  The  majority  of  people  in  all 
our  great  cities  must  of  necessity  live  in  rented  houses.  It 
is  never  possible  to  feel  toward  a  house  that  is  rented  as 
one  feels  toward  a  house  that  he  owns.  Moreover  the  houses 
are  in  many  cases  so  nearly  alike  along  an  entire  street  that 
it  is  hard  to  distinguish  them  except  by  the  number  that  is 
painted  over  the  door.  Houses  do  not  have  that  indi- 
viduality which  endears  them  to  the  heart  and  around 
which  the  affections  can  entwine  themselves.  Tens  of 
thousands  are  obliged  to  live  in  apartments,  the  apart- 
ments being  piled  one  on  top  of  the  other,  each  apartment 
being  almost  the  same  as  every  other,  and  as  much  alike 
as  so  many  pigeon-holes  into  which  human  beings  are 
thrust  over  night.     And   moreover  the  multiplication  of 

[  195  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

clubs  and  societies  and  organizations  of  many  varieties 
and  names  use  up  the  evenings,  allowing  husbands  and 
wives  little  time  together,  and  parents  no  time  with  their 
children.  Fashion  also  is  working  with  both  hands  against 
the  home.  There  seems  to  be  an  increasing  tendency 
among  the  so-called  upper  classes  for  mothers  to  get  rid 
of  their  children  as  soon  as  they  can.  On  coming  into  the 
world  the  children  are  handed  over  to  the  nurse,  later  on 
they  are  passed  over  to  the  care  of  the  governess.  They 
are  sent  at  the  earliest  moment  to  the  kindergarten,  and  then 
after  a  short  season  in  school  they  are  hurried  ofT  to  some 
academy  or  boarding-school,  the  chief  desire  of  many 
fathers  and  mothers  being  to  roll  the  responsibility  of 
bringing  up  their  children  on  to  somebody  else's  shoulders 
and  to  get  out  of  the  trouble  and  responsibility  which  the 
training  of  children  involves.  There  are  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  young  men  and  young  women  growing  up 
in  this  country  who  have  been  practically  denied  the  very 
greatest  privilege  which  it  is  in  the  power  of  heaven  to 
bestow.  They  have  never  from  their  infancy  known  the 
meaning  of  home.  And  this  is  a  loss  which  is  not  only 
incalculable,  but  it  is  a  loss  which  can  never  be  made  good. 
Good  things  may  come  to  us  in  the  later  years,  but  nothing 
so  good  can  ever  come  as  home.  The  man  and  the  woman 
who  were  denied  a  home  in  the  days  of  their  youth  are  men 
and  women  who  are  forever  maimed.  There  are  certain 
things  which  one  learns  at  home  which  can  be  learned 
nowhere  else  on  earth,  and  if  they  are  not  learned  at  home 
in  the  days  of  one's  youth,  they  are  never  learned  at  all. 
There  are  virtues  and  graces  the  very  sweetest  which  the 
human  spirit  can  put  forth  which  do  not  blossom  anywhere 
else  except  in  homes  made  warm  and  fragrant  by  parental 
love. 

[196] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

And  it  is  because  our  home  life  is  breaking  down  that 
we  have  an  increasing  number  of  divorces.  The  divorce 
evil  is  one  of  the  most  alarming  phenomena  of  our  day, 
and  unless  it  can  be  checked  America  is  doomed.  We  al- 
ready have  a  worse  record  than  that  of  any  other  nation  in 
the  civilized  world.  We  seem  to  be  growing  worse  with 
the  years.  It  was  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  tie  that 
was  largely  responsible  for  the  fall  of  an  empire  that  called 
itself  eternal,  and  we  need  not  expect  the  republic  founded 
by  Washington  and  saved  by  Lincoln  to  withstand  the  virus 
of  a  sin  which  proved  fatal  even  to  Rome.  Men  and 
women  in  increasing  numbers  seem  to  marry  for  every 
other  reason  than  love  —  for  fortune,  for  place,  for  con- 
venience, for  society,  out  of  whim  or  caprice.  They  live 
together  for  a  little  time,  then  they  discover  there  is  a 
difiference  of  taste  or  a  difference  of  ideal,  or  one  is  not  al- 
together congenial  to  the  other,  or  a  longing  for  the  old 
freedom  of  unmarried  life  comes  back.  The  result  is  sepa- 
ration, and  a  new  drop  in  the  cup  of  our  national  infamy. 
The  Christian  church  must  set  itself  against  this  evil  with 
all  the  energy  of  deep  conviction  and  unsparing  indignation. 
It  must  be  counted,  except  in  the  rarest  instances,  the  great- 
est disgrace  to  be  divorced,  and  men  and  women  who 
promise  before  God  and  in  the  sight  of  men  to  take  one 
another  for  better  or  for  worse,  for  richer  or  for  poorer, 
and  to  live  together  until  God  does  them  part,  must  not 
be  allowed  recklessly  to  trample  upon  the  most  sacred 
vows  which  human  lips  can  take  and  human  hearts  can 
promise,  and  still  hold  their  heads  up  in  society  which 
is  decent. 

We  must  guard  the  home  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it 
are  the  issues  of  life.  It  is  the  nursery  in  which  immortal 
souls  are  formed,  it  is  the  fountain  from  which  the  streams 

[  197  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

of  national  life  proceed.  It  is  the  foundation  of  the  school, 
the  foundation  of  the  state,  the  foundation  of  the  church. 
There  is  no  problem  which  cannot  be  settled  provided  we 
have  a  nation  of  Christian  homes.  There  is  no  evil  which 
cannot  be  discomfited  and  routed  provided  we  have  a 
nation  of  families  bound  together  by  the  ties  of  faith  and 
love.  '*  The  church  in  thy  house."  That  is  the  church 
to  be  prized  and  reverenced  above  all  others.  It  is  there 
that  your  worship  to  Almighty  God  must  be  most  sincere, 
and  most  complete.  If  the  church  in  thy  house  is  not  a 
church  then  we  can  have  no  church  anywhere.  But  if  the 
church  in  thy  house  is  full  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  if  God's 
commandments  are  the  law  of  its  action,  and  if  Christ's 
promises  are  the  music  of  its  days,  and  if  Christ's  ideals 
are  the  inspiration  of  its  ambition  and  its  effort,  then  we 
shall  have  a  church  which  on  the  Lord's  day  in  the  house 
of  prayer  will  be  able  to  render  praise  acceptable  to  the 
King.  And  then  shall  we  have  a  nation  against  which  the 
gates  of  destruction  shall  not  prevail. 

There  are  two  pictures  of  home  which  are  preeminent 
above  all  others  in  English  literature,  both  of  them  pictures 
of  a  Puritan  home.  The  first  is  Robert  Burns'  "  Cotter's 
Saturday  Night."  Burns  was  not  a  Puritan  in  his  living, 
but  he  was  a  man  of  keen  insight,  and  he  saw  that  the 
Puritan  home  was  the  source  of  Scotland's  strength  and 
the  foundation  of  her  greatness.  As  a  distinguished  Eng- 
lish critic  has  said,  the  lines  of  this  poem  fall  on  the  heart 
like  strains  of  slow  and  solemn  music. 

"  The  cheerfu'  supper  done,  wi'  serious  face, 
They  round  the  ingle  form  a  circle  wide; 
The  sire  turns  o'er,  wi'  patriarchal  grace, 
The  big  ha'  Bible,  ance  his  father's  pride: 
His  bonnet  rev'rently  is  laid  aside, 

His  lyart  hafif ets  wearing  thin  an'  bare ; 

[198] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

Those  strains  that  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide, 
He  wales  a  portion  with  judicious  care; 
And  *  Let  us  worship  God! '  he  says,  with  solemn  air. 

They  chant  their  artless  notes  in  simple  guise; 

They  tune  their  hearts,  by  far  the  noblest  aim: 
Perhaps  '  Dundee's  '  wild  warbling  measures  rise, 
Or  plaintive  '  Martyrs,'  worthy  of  the  name: 

Or  noble  '  Elgin  '  beats  the  heavenward  flame. 
The  sweetest  far  of  Scotia's  holy  lays: 

Compared  with  these,  Italian  thrills  are  tame; 
The  tickled  ears  no  heartfelt  raptures  raise; 
Nae  unison  hae  they  with  our  Creator's  praise. 

The  priest-like  father  reads  the  sacred  page. 

How  Abram  was  the  friend  of  God  on  high ; 
Or,  Moses  bade  eternal  warfare  wage 

With  Amelek's  ungracious  progeny; 

Or  how  the  royal  bard  did  groaning  lie 
Beneath  the  stroke  of  Heaven's  avenging  ire; 

Or,  Job's  pathetic  plaint,  and  wailing  cry; 
Or  rapt  Isaiah's  wild,  seraphic  fire; 
Or  other  holy  seers  that  tune  the  sacred  lyre. 

Perhaps  the  Christian  volume  is  the  theme,' 

How  guiltless  blood  for  guilty  man  was  shed; 
How  He,  who  bore  in  heaven  the  second  name, 

Had  not  on  earth  whereon  to  lay  his  head : 

How  his  first  followers  and  servants  sped ; 
The  precepts  sage  they  wrote  to  many  a  land: 

How  he,  who  lone  in  Patmos  banished, 
Saw  in  the  sun  a  mighty  angel  stand ; 
And  heard  great  Bab'lon'sdoom  pronounced  by  Heaven's 
command. 

Then  kneeling  down,  to  Heaven's  Eternal  King, 
The  saint,  the  father,  and  the  husband  prays: 

Hope  '  springs  exulting  on  triumphant  wing,' 

That  thus  they  all  shall  meet  in  future  days: 
There  ever  bask  in  uncreated  rays. 

No  more  to  sigh,  or  shed  the  bitter  tear, 
Together  hymning  their  Creator's  praise, 

In  such  society,  yet  still  more  dear; 

While  circling  time  moves  round  in  an  eternal  sphere." 

The  second  picture  is  Whittier's  "  Snowbound."  It  will 
live  as  long  as  there  are  men  upon  this  earth  who  love  their 
home.    The  old  house  which  it  describes  is  standing  still. 

[  199] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

with  the  open  fireplace  and  much  of  the  furniture  as  they 
were  in  the  olden  days.  Standing  under  that  humble  roof 
one  can  realize  afresh  the  secret  of  New  England's  great- 
ness. From  the  beginning  until  now  New  England  has 
been  the  land  of  homes.  Much  of  her  soil  is  barren,  her 
skies  through  a  large  portion  of  the  year  are  inclement,  but 
from  the  beginning  until  now  it  has  been  to  many  hearts 
a  Garden  of  Eden  because  to  them  it  has  been  home.  The 
reason,  I  think,  why  we  find  it  difficult  to  pity  the  early 
founders  of  New  England  and  to  believe  that  their  life  was 
hard,  the  reason  why  we  do  not  shudder  when  the  poets 
and  historians  tell  us  about  the  terrible  winters,  the  fearful 
beasts  and  the  bloodthirsty  Indians  is  because  all  those 
early  days  are  filled  for  our  imagination  with  enchantment, 
because  we  see  the  firelight  dancing  on  the  walls,  and  hear 
the  flames  of  the  great  logs  roaring  in  the  chimney.  It 
could  not  have  been  so  cold  and  dreary  —  we  keep  saying 
to  ourselves  —  with  such  loving  people  sitting  around  the 
open  fire! 

"  So  all  night  long  the  storm  roared  on: 
The  morning  broke  without  a  sun ; 
In  tiny  spherule  traced  with  lines 
Of  Nature's  geometric  signs, 
In  starry  flake,  and  pellicle, 
All  day  the  hoary  meteor  fell; 
And,  when  the  second  morning  shone, 
We  looked  upon  a  world  unknown, 
On  nothing  we  could  call  our  own. 
Around  the  glistening  wonder  bent 
The  blue  walls  of  the  firmament, 
No  cloud  above,  no  earth  below,  — 
A  universe  of  sky  and  snow! 
The  old  familiar  sights  of  ours 
Took  marvelous  shapes;  strange  domes  and  towers 
Rose  up  where  sty  or  corn-crib  stood, 
Or  garden-wall,  or  belt  of  wood ; 
A  smooth  white  mound  the  brush-pile  showed, 
A  fenceless  drift  what  once  was  road ; 
The  bridle-post  an  old  man  sat 

[200] 


THE  PURITAN  AND  THE  HOME 

With  loose-flung  coat  and  high  cocked  hat ; 
The  well-curb  had  a  Chinese  roof; 
And  even  the  long  sweep,  high  aloof, 
In  its  slant  splendor,  seemed  to  tell 
Of  Pisa's  leaning  miracle. 

As  night  drew  on,  and,  from  the  crest 
Of  wooded  knolls  that  ridged  the  west. 
The  sun,  a  snow-blown  traveler,  sank 
From  sight  beneath  the  smothering  bank. 
We  piled,  with  care,  our  nightly  stack 
Of  wood  against  the  chimney-back,  — 
The  oaken  log,  green,  huge,  and  thick, 
And  on  its  top  the  stout  back-stick; 
The  knotty  forestick  laid  apart, 
And  filled  between  with  curious  art 
The  ragged  brush;  then,  hovering  near, 
We  watched  the  first  red  blaze  appear, 
Heard  the  sharp  crackle,  caught  the  gleam 
On  whitewashed  wall  and  sagging  beam, 
Until  the  old,  rude-furnished  room 
Burst,  flower-like,  into  rosy  bloom; 
While  radiant  with  a  mimic  flame 
Outside  the  sparkling  drift  became, 
And  through  the  bare-boughed  lilac-tree 
Our  own  warm  hearth  seemed  blazing  free. 
The  crane  and  pendent  trammels  showed, 
The  Turks'  heads  on  the  andirons  glowed ; 
While  childish  fancy,  prompt  to  tell 
The  meaning  of  the  miracle, 
Whispered  the  old  rhyme:  *  Under  the  tree, 
When  fire  outdoors  burns  merrily, 
There  the  witches  are  making  tea.' 

Shut  in  from  all  the  world  without. 
We  sat  the  clean-winged  hearth  about. 
Content  to  let  the  north-wind  roar 
In  baffled  rage  at  pane  and  door. 
While  the  red  logs  before  us  beat 
The  frost-line  back  with  tropic  heat ; 
And  ever,  when  a  louder  blast, 
Shook  beam  and  rafter  as  it  passed, 
The  merrier  up  its  roaring  draught 
The  great  throat  of  the  chimney  laughed, 
The  house-dog  on  his  paws  outspread 
Laid  to  the  fire  his  drowsy  head. 
The  cat's  dark  silhouette  on  the  wall 
A  couchant  tiger's  seemed  to  fall ; 
And,  for  the  winter  fireside  meet, 
Between  the  andirons'  straddling  feet, 

[  20I  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

The  mug  of  cider  simmered  slow, 
The  apples  sputtered  in  a  row, 
And,  close  at  hand,  the  basket  stood 
With  nuts  from  brown  October's  wood. 

What  matter  how  the  night  behaved? 
What  matter  how  the  north-wind  raved? 
Blow  high,  blow  low,  not  all  its  snow 
Could  quench  our  hearth-fire's  ruddy  glow. 
O  Time  and  Change!  —  with  hair  as  gray 
As  was  my  sire's  that  winter  day. 
How  strange  it  seems,  with  so  much  gone 
Of  life  and  love,  to  still  live  on ! 
Ah,  brother!  only  I  and  thou 
Are  left  of  all  that  circle  now,  — 
The  dear  home  faces  whereupon 
That  fitful  firelight  paled  and  shone. 

Henceforward,  listen  as  we  will. 
The  voices  of  that  hearth  are  still ; 
Look  where  we  may,  the  wide  earth  o'er 
Those  lighted  faces  smile  no  more. 
We  tread  the  paths  their  feet  have  worn, 

We  sit  beneath  their  orchard  trees. 

We  hear,  like  them,  the  hum  of  bees 
And  rustle  of  the  bladed  corn ; 
We  turn  the  pages  that  they  read, 

Their  written  words  we  linger  o'er, 
But  in  the  sun  they  cast  no  shade, 
No  voice  is  heard,  no  sign  is  made, 

No  step  is  on  the  conscious  floor ! 
Yet  love  will  dream,  and  Faith  will  trust, 
(Since  He  who  knows  our  need  is  just,) 
That  somehow,  somewhere,  meet  we  must. 
Alas  for  him  who  never  sees 
The  stars  shine  through  his  cypress-trees! 
Who,  hopeless,  lays  his  dead  away. 
Nor  looks  to  see  the  breaking  day 
Across  the  mournful  marbles  play! 
Who  hath  not  learned,  in  hours  of  faith, 

The  truth  to  flesh  and  sense  unknown, 
That  Life  is  ever  lord  of  Death, 

And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own ! 


[  202  ] 


XII 
THE   PURITAN   SABBATH   AND   OURS  ^ 

^'Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy."  —  Exodus  20  :  8. 

The  Puritans  liked  to  call  their  day  of  rest  the  "  Sab- 
bath." Sometimes  they  called  it  the  "  First  Day."  This 
was  the  expression  employed  in  the  Gospels.  More  fre- 
quently they  called  it  the  *'  Lord's  Day."  They  had  au- 
thority for  this  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  the  Reve- 
lation. But  their  favorite  name  was  **  Sabbath."  This 
was  the  word  which  Moses  had  used,  and  David,  the  sweet 
singer  of  Israel,  and  all  the  Prophets,  and  it  was,  therefore, 
presumably  the  favorite  of  Heaven.  The  word  "  Sun- 
day "  they  would  not  use  because  it  was  not  to  be  found 
in  the  Bible.  It  was  a  word  of  pagan  origin,  meaning  Sun's 
Day,  just  as  Monday  means  Moon's  Day,  and  any  word 
coined  in  a  heathen  mint  could  not  be  applied  to  a  divine 
institution.  Scriptural  sanction  was  essential  for  all  their 
religious  names  and  customs,  and,  therefore,  ''  Sunday  " 
was  among  them  a  name  tabooed. 

In  dealing  with  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  we  are  dealing  with 
a  familiar  theme.  We  have  all  our  life  heard  about  it, 
and  have  come  to  feel  that  we  know  quite  well  just  what  it 
was.  For  more  than  two  centuries  it  has  been  a  subject 
to  make  merry  with.  No  other  Puritan  institution  has 
been  made  the  butt  of  so  many  jokes,  upon  none  other  has 
been  poured  such  abundant  and  hilarious  ridicule.  Sat- 
ires in  prose  and  verse  have  been  written  on  the  theme,  and 
English  and  American  writers  have  emulated  one  another 

1  Dec.  18,  1910. 

[  203  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

in  making  the  Sabbath  observances  of  the  Puritan  gro- 
tesque and  laughable.  Mirth-provoking  articles  on  the 
subject  have  not  yet  ceased  to  appear,  and  many  a 
volume  has  been  filled  with  droll  narratives  of  the  ways 
in  which  our  forefathers  endeavored  to  keep  the  Sabbath 
holy. 

It  has  also  been  a  theme  for  scorn  and  indignation.  For 
many,  the  subject  has  been  too  serious  for  a  smile  and  has 
brought  forth  only  lightnings  of  condemnation.  The  Puri- 
tan Sabbath  has  to  these  persons  been  anything  but  a 
joke.  They  have  found  in  it  a  tyranny  and  a  scourge,  an 
engine  for  darkening  and  maiming  the  life  of  the  world. 
The  sufferings  of  the  children  crushed  by  the  Puritan 
Sabbath  have  called  forth  passionate  commiseration,  and 
the  cruelty  of  the  fathers  and  mothers  who  endeavored  to 
banish  from  the  first  day  of  the  week  every  trace  of  gaiety 
and  enjoyment,  making  the  day  a  day  of  gloom  to  every 
one  but  religious  enthusiasts  or  fanatics,  has  been  often 
dwelt  upon  and  held  up  for  wrath  and  execration.  There 
are  some  who  feel  that  the  Puritan  by  his  policy  of  Sab- 
bath observance  made  a  vast  and  unpardonable  subtraction 
from  the  sum  total  of  human  joy,  and  that  no  institution 
of  the  Puritan  world  is  so  deserving  of  endless  maledictions 
as  the  Puritan  Sabbath. 

When  humor  and  scorn  combine  to  exploit  a  thing,  they 
carry  the  memory  of  it  far.  All  the  world  knows  that  there 
was  once  such  a  thing  as  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  and  it  knows 
quite  accurately  what  sort  of  a  thing  it  was.  It  knows  that 
the  Sabbath  of  the  Puritans  was  a  stiff  and  straight-laced 
day,  very  solemn  and  very  somber,  a  burden  to  the  boys 
and  girls  and  an  intolerable  yoke  to  the  man  of  the  world. 
People  who  scarcely  know  who  the  Puritans  were,  whence 
they  came,  what  they  achieved,  or  at  what  date  they  van- 

[  204  ] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

ished,  are  well  posted  in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  they 
observed  the  Sabbath.  There  are  men  in  this  congrega- 
tion, who,  born  in  homes  in  which  the  Puritan  traditions 
still  lingered,  have  lively  recollections  of  the  interminable 
length  and  indescribable  tediousness  of  the  Sabbath  in 
their  boyhood,  and  one  often  meets  persons  who  have  given 
up  all  interest  in  religion  because  —  as  they  say  —  of  the 
way  in  which  as  children  they  were  obliged  to  keep  the 
Day  of  Rest.  John  Ruskin  in  his  autobiography  humor- 
ously intimates  that  he  might  have  become  an  evangelical 
clergyman  if  he  had  not  been  obliged  when  a  boy  to  eat 
cold  mutton  for  his  Sunday's  dinner.  His  father  and  mother 
and  aunt  were  Puritans. 

The  Puritan  Sabbath  has  passed  away,  but  in  many  a 
quarter  there  are  fears  that  it  may  come  back.  Herod 
was  not  more  fearful  of  the  return  to  earth  of  John  the 
Baptist  than  is  many  an  American  of  the  return  of  the 
Sabbath  of  the  Puritans.  When  from  time  to  time  an 
effort  is  made  in  any  of  our  cities  to  curtail  somewhat  the 
encroachments  of  those  who  would  make  all  days  alike,  a 
shriek  of  terror  rends  the  air,  and  in  many  a  paper,  in 
startling  headlines,  the  public  is  warned  of  the  peril  of 
reinstating  the  Puritan  Sabbath.  From  time  to  time 
certain  stories  are  rehearsed  to  give  the  new  generation 
a  vivid  idea  of  the  kind  of  men  the  Puritans  were.  The 
bachelor  preacher  who  refused  to  baptize  a  baby  because 
it  happened  to  be  born  on  Sunday,  is  as  sure  of  deathless 
renown  as  Caesar,  Charlemagne  and  Napoleon,  and  the 
Boston  man  who  kissed  his  wife  one  Sunday  morning  on 
his  own  front  doorstep  on  his  return  home  after  a  three 
years'  absence,  and  was  set  in  the  stocks  for  two  hours  as 
a  penalty  for  his  misdemeanor,  is  also  an  heir  of  immor- 
tality.    Wherever  the  story  of  the  Puritans  is  related,  the 

[205  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

tale  of  that  man's  kiss  and  its  consequences  will  be  told 
as  a  memorial  of  them. 

But  before  we  break  into  laughter  or  give  way  to  indigna- 
tion over  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  sundry  observations  should 
be  made.  Bishop  Butler  said  many  wise  things,  but  he 
never  said  anything  much  better  than  this:  "  Let  us  re- 
member that  we  differ  as  much  from  other  men  as  they 
differ  from  us."  It  is  easy  to  forget  this.  We  look  with 
wonder  upon  a  man  who  differs  from  us,  lamenting  the 
immense  distance  he  is  away  from  us,  and  we  forget  that 
he  is  also  astonished  at  the  distance  which  we  stand  from 
him.  We  laugh  at  him  and  forget  that  he  is  laughing  at 
us.  We  think  his  opinions  erroneous  or  silly,  and  that  is 
just  what  he  thinks  of  ours.  In  our  heart  we  call  him  a 
fool,  and  in  all  probability  that  is  what  he  is  calling  us.  It 
is  well  to  remember  that  the  laugh  is  always  on  both  sides, 
and  that  both  men  look  equally  funny  to  the  other.  We 
smile  at  the  fashions  of  the  Puritans.  They  were  so  odd. 
We  gaze  on  the  old  pictures  of  their  lords  and  ladies,  and 
we  wonder  how  such  styles  of  dress  could  ever  have  been 
counted  beautiful  or  in  good  taste.  But  what  would  the 
Puritan  think  if  he  could  look  at  us?  Probably  our  styles 
would  stir  him  to  laughter  and  cause  him  to  wonder  what 
had  become  of  high  standards  of  taste.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  people  of  three  hundred  years  from  now  will  laugh 
equally  loud  over  the  styles  of  the  sixteenth  century  and 
those  of  the  twentieth.  We  read  of  the  cold  churches  of 
the  Puritans  with  amazement.  We  cannot  understand 
how  people  could  desire  to  glorify  God  by  making  them- 
selves uncomfortable.  To  sit  in  a  cold  room  for  two  or 
three  hours  with  no  other  heat  than  that  which  came  from 
the  sermon,  that  strikes  us  as  something  incomprehensible. 
But  what  would  the  Puritan  think  if  he  came  back  to  our 

[206  ] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

world,  and  saw  thirty  or  forty  thousand  people  sitting  out 
in  the  open  air  on  a  bleak  November  day,  their  noses 
purple  because  of  the  icy  wind  and  their  teeth  chattering 
from  the  cold,  looking  intently  for  two  hours  at  a  lot  of 
college  boys  tumbling  over  one  another  on  the  ground  in 
frantic  efforts  to  push  a  little  leathern  ball  a  few  feet  nearer 
to  two  poles  erected  at  one  end  of  a  field?  He  might 
wonder  at  the  curious  freaks  which  human  nature  takes 
and  at  the  queer  ideas  which  mortals  hold  of  having  a 
good  time.  We  pity  the  poor  church  members  of  the 
seventeenth  century  who  would  sit  and  listen  patiently  to 
a  sermon  two  hours  long,  and  cannot  understand  how  after 
finishing  one  sermon  they  should  want  in  the  afternoon  to 
hear  another.  But  what  would  the  Puritan  think  if  he 
saw  a  twentieth  century  Christian  buried  in  a  Sunday  news- 
paper, poring  over  its  pages  for  two  long  hours,  convinced 
that  he  is  spending  his  time  profitably?  The  longest  of 
the  Puritan  sermons  never  went,  I  believe,  beyond  the 
twenty-eighthly,  whereas,  I  am  told,  the  Sunday  paper 
often  extends  to  the  thirty-secondly  and  occasionally  to 
the  sixty-fourthly. 

Our  estimate  of  a  thing  always  depends  upon  our  de- 
gree of  interest  in  it.  To  a  person  who  cares  nothing  for 
golf  what  is  outwardly  more  silly  than  that  popular  game? 
A  full  grown  man  in  possession  of  his  senses,  solemnly 
takes  his  place  in  the  presence  of  a  little  ball  two  inches  in 
diameter,  and  after  mature  deliberation  and  a  great  flourish 
with  a  club,  knocks  the  ball,  if  successful,  several  hundred 
feet  through  the  air;  whereupon  he  walks  to  where  the 
ball  is  supposed  to  be,  and  spends  sometimes  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  in  looking  for  it,  if  it  has  gone  into  the  grass  or 
into  a  stone  wall  or  into  a  body  of  water,  all  for  the  privilege 
of  hitting  it  again.     There  is  nothing  more  absurd  than 

[207] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

golf  —  to  the  man  who  does  not  care  for  it.  And  so  it  is 
with  sermons.  If  a  man  does  not  like  a  sermon  nothing 
is  more  tedious  and  stupid.  If  a  man  is  not  interested  in 
religion,  then  religion  is  to  him  an  unmitigated  bore.  A 
man  who  cares  nothing  for  religion  has  no  right,  however, 
to  assume  that  men  who  devoted  one  day  in  seven  to  re- 
ligion were  of  necessity  having  a  dismal  time.  Much  of 
the  gloom  with  which  we  have  surrounded  the  Puritan  is 
the  creation  of  our  own  uninstructed  fancy.  We  can  never 
do  justice  to  men  of  former  times  unless  we  possess  a 
vigorous  imagination.  We  must  put  ourselves  in  their 
place.  We  must  look  out  upon  the  world  through  their 
eyes,  and  fit  ourselves  into  their  environment.  The  world 
in  which  the  Puritans  lived  was  not  our  world.  They  had 
no  magazines  or  weeklies  or  daily  papers.  They  had  no 
lectures  or  theaters  or  operas.  Like  all  human  beings  they 
needed  stimulus  and  inspiration,  and  for  these  they  were 
obliged  to  look  to  the  pulpit.  What  is  now  done  by  the 
editor,  the  author,  the  lecturer  and  the  actor  was  then  done 
by  the  preacher.  It  was  necessary  for  him  to  do  four 
men's  work,  and  had  we  lived  in  those  days,  many  of  us 
would  have  wanted  two  sermons  every  Sunday  and  every 
sermon  two  hours  long.  If  you  remember  what  the  meeting 
house  was  in  early  New  England  days,  you  will  see  that  it 
was  far  from  a  gloomy  place.  The  people  were  in  many 
cases  obliged  to  walk  long  distances  to  the  church.  In 
winter  time  they  waded  through  the  snowdrifts,  making 
their  way  toilsomely  through  the  forests,  over  treacherous 
streams,  the  man  carrying  his  musket  on  his  shoulder,  the 
mother  carrying  the  baby  in  her  arms,  and  when  at  last 
they  reached  the  meeting  house  it  was  to  them  a  place  of 
refuge,  a  garden  of  Eden  in  which  they  caught  once  more 
the  breath  of  the  flowers  of  paradise,  a  glorious  feast  re- 

[208] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

minding  them  of  the  rest  which  is  prepared  for  the  children 
of  God.  No  wonder  they  tarried  long,  and  counted  the 
hours  spent  within  its  walls  the  most  precious  of  the  week! 
Moreover  we  must  take  into  account  the  Puritan  em- 
phasis upon  the  necessity  of  religious  instruction.  Without 
instruction  in  religious  matters  they  believed  that  every 
state  and  civilization  must  deteriorate  and  perish.  It  was 
necessary  —  so  they  thought  —  for  both  adults  and  chil- 
dren to  be  painstakingly  instructed  in  those  things  which 
God  had  revealed  through  the  prophets  and  apostles, 
and  in  order  to  do  this  work  thoroughly  they  began  the 
Sabbath  at  sunset  Saturday  evening  and  in  some  places 
at  three  o'clock  Saturday  afternoon.  We  have  quite  other 
ideas  in  regard  to  the  importance  of  religious  education. 
Some  of  us  think  that  it  can  safely  be  made  an  elective. 
It  is  not  a  feature  of  our  public  schools.  Even  the  colleges 
planted  by  the  Puritans  do  not  put  the  Gospels  among  the 
studies  which  are  prescribed.  Pagan  authors  are  given  a 
foremost  place,  but  the  evangelists  and  prophets,  if  they 
have  any  place  at  all,  are  among  the  electives,  and  boys 
are  bidden  to  take  or  leave  them  as  they  choose.  In  many 
a  Christian  home  there  is  no  religious  instruction,  and  in 
many  a  Christian  church  there  is  no  Bible  school  such  as 
the  community  needs,  because  Christians  in  such  large 
numbers  fail  to  fit  themselves  for  Bible  teaching  and  refuse 
to  make  the  sacrifice  which  instructional  work  demands. 
But  it  is  too  early  yet  to  laugh  at  the  Puritan  because  he  be- 
lieved in  catechisms,  and  asserted  that  religious  education 
is  essential  for  the  health  and  growth  of  a  nation,  and 
that  the  chief  work  on  the  Lord's  Day  is  the  prosecution 
of  moral  and  religious  instruction.  Let  us  not  laugh  just 
yet,  for  we  do  not  know  how  we  are  coming  out.  There 
are  stormclouds  along  the  horizon,  and  what  the  future 

[  209  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

holds  is  hidden  from  our  eyes.  It  may  be  that  some  day 
the  world  will  discover  that  on  this  subject  of  religious 
instruction  the  Puritan  was  right  and  that  we  were  wrong. 

And  then  we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  gulled.  We 
have  all  heard  of  the  "  Blue  Laws  "  of  Connecticut,  and 
some  of  us  have  been  ashamed  of  such  an  exhibition  of 
Puritan  tyranny  and  folly.  One  of  these  blue  laws  read 
thus:  ''  No  woman  shall  kiss  her  child  on  the  Sabbath." 
Another  one  ran:  "  No  one  shall  play  on  any  instrument 
of  music,  except  the  drum,  trumpet,  or  jewsharp."  It  is 
that  sort  of  legislation  which  has  given  foes  of  the  Puri- 
tans occasion  to  jeer.  But  the  next  time  you  hear  some 
one  railing  at  the  blue  laws  of  Connecticut,  say  to  him: 
"What  a  gullible  creature  you  are!  Do  you  not  know 
that  that  code  of  laws  was  fabricated  in  the  brain  of  a  Tory 
refugee,  who  was  driven  out  of  New  England  near  the  close 
of  the  Revolutionary  War?  "  Mr.  John  Fiske  calls  him  a 
"  Baron  Munchausen,"  but  a  severer  name  has  often  been 
employed.  Samuel  Peters  went  back  to  England  dis- 
gruntled, and  he  took  delight  in  seeing  the  Englishmen 
open  their  eyes  on  the  recital  of  the  queer  doings  of  the 
Americans.  It  was  his  object  to  make  them  out  fanatics 
and  fools,  and  so  in  1781  he  published  the  alleged  "  Blue 
Laws  of  New  Haven."  Those  who  have  read  but  little  his- 
tory and  who  get  their  notions  of  the  past  from  rumor  and 
hearsay,  have  taken  the  blue  laws  of  this  Tory  mischief- 
maker  as  authentic  and  literal  history.  These  laws  were 
only  a  part  of  that  huge  joke  in  which  the  world  has  in- 
dulged at  the  expense  of  the  Puritans. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  Sabbath  legislation  of  Colonial 
New  England  was  not  in  spots  both  tyrannical  and  fan- 
tastic. Many  of  those  early  regulations  strike  the  modern 
mind  as  mischievous  and  childish.     Their  incessant  inter- 

[  210] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

ference  with  personal  liberty  would  not  be  submitted  to 
by  Americans  now  living;   no,  not  for  a  day.     Nor  can  it 
be  said  that  there  were  never  any  blue  laws  of  any  sort 
in  New  England.    All  laws  are  blue  laws  to  the  men  who 
transgress  them.     The  law  against  stealing  gives  a  thief 
the  blues  after  he  finds  himself  behind  the  bars.    The  law 
against  racetrack  gambling  has  made  many  a  New  York 
gambler  blue.    Early  New  England  had  numerous  statutes 
which  contained  not  a  little  of  the  spirit  which  Samuel 
Peters  hit  off  in  his  famous  code.     But  after  the  worst 
has  been  confessed,  it  still  remains  true  that  the  Puritan 
Sabbath  was  not  so  awful  as  it  has  sometimes  been  painted. 
At  this  point  let  us  define  the  Puritan  Sabbath.    It  em- 
bodied   two    fundamental    principles.      It   was    a   day   of 
rest  and  it  was  a  day  of  religion.    The  two  supreme  pro- 
hibitions of  the  day  were:   "Thou  shalt  not  work,"  and 
"  Thou  shalt  not  play."    Works  of  mercy  and  of  necessity 
were  of  course  permitted,  but  "  necessity  "  was  interpreted 
narrowly.     For  instance,  no  cooking  was  allowed  because 
the  cooking  could  all  be  done  on  Saturday.    No  dishwash- 
ing was  countenanced,  because  dishes  could  be  washed  on 
Monday.      Every  sort  of  work  except  that  imperatively 
demanded,  was  banished  from  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  and 
so  also  was  every  sort  of  play.    John  Cotton,  in  his  "  Milk 
for  Babes,"  expressed  the  general  conviction:  **  We  should 
rest  from  labor,  much  more  from  play."     In  1712  Increase 
Mather  laid  it  down  with  authority:    ''  Children  must  not 
be  allowed  to  play  on  the  Sabbath."    There  were  no  games 
for  children,  no  sports  for  men  on  the  Lord's  day  as  ob- 
served by  the  Puritan.     In  his  conception  the  day  was 
a  day  for  the  improvement  of  the  soul.     On  the  first  day 
of  the  week  it  was  one's  privilege  to  turn  his  thoughts 
toward  God,  and  to  meditate  upon  the  things  which  had 

[211] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

been  written  for  man's  guidance  here  and  to  secure  his 
blessedness  hereafter.  A  day  for  rest  and  spiritual  upbuild- 
ing, this  in  a  word  was  the  Sabbath  of  the  Puritan. 

If  you  ask  whence  came  the  day,  the  reply  is  they  found 
it  in  the  Bible.  The  Puritan  read  his  Bible  with  a  hunger 
and  devotion  of  which  we  know  but  little.  To  him  it  was 
a  new  book.  For  centuries  the  Bible  had  been  the  posses- 
sion of  the  clergy  only.  The  common  people  could  not  have 
it;  first,  because  books  before  the  invention  of  the  printing 
press  were  enormously  expensive;  secondly,  because  most 
of  the  people  could  not  read ;  and  thirdly,  because  it  was  the 
conviction  of  the  leaders  of  the  church  that  the  Bible  could 
not  safely  be  entrusted  to  the  hands  of  laymen,  but  must 
be  read  and  interpreted  only  by  the  priest.  With  the  com- 
ing of  the  printing  press  and  the  Reformation  a  mighty 
change  took  place.  The  Bible  passed  almost  at  once  into 
the  hands  of  the  common  people.  They  found  in  it  the 
voice  of  God.  They  searched  it  for  condemnations  of  what 
the  mediaeval  church  had  taught  and  practiced.  When 
Catholics  said,  "  Listen  to  the  Pope,"  the  Protestants 
replied,  "  Listen  to  the  Bible."  When  one  side  said,  "  The 
Pope  is  infallible,"  the  other  retorted,  "  We  have  an  in- 
fallible Book."  When  priests  asserted  that  it  is  the  church 
which  tells  men  what  they  ought  to  do,  the  Protestants 
declared  that  men  must  be  guided  solely  by  the  Scrip- 
tures. With  this  conception  of  the  Bible  it  was  natural 
that  one  should  begin  with  Genesis.  The  whole  Book 
was  inspired,  every  syllable  was  straight  from  heaven,  no 
paragraph  or  sentence  could  be  safely  neglected.  And  so 
men  began  with  the  first  verse  of  the  first  book  and  read 
straight  on  for  guidance  and  consolation.  In  the  Book  of 
Exodus  they  found  this:  "  Remember  the  Sabbath  Day 
to  keep  it  holy.    Six  days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy 

[212  ] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

work;  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy 
God,  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son, 
nor  thy  daughter,  thy  manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant, 
nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates." 
It  was  all  straightforward,  unambiguous,  explicit,  clear  and 
complete.  There  could  be  no  misunderstanding  of  the 
words.  Men  said:  "  This  is  God's  law.  We  are  bound 
to  obey  it.  All  men  must  obey  it  or  suffer."  They  read 
the  next  book  and  the  book  which  followed,  and  in  these 
three  books  they  found  how  this  fourth  commandment 
among  the  Jews  was  applied.  No  fire  could  be  kindled  on 
the  Sabbath.  Picking  up- sticks  on  the  Sabbath  was  pro- 
hibited. No  one  was  permitted  to  move  out  of  his  place 
on  the  seventh  day.  All  of  this  was  from  God  and  all 
everlastingly  binding  on  the  consciences  of  men.  In  the 
year  1595  there  appeared  a  book  entitled:  "The  True 
Sabbath  and  the  New  Testament."  Its  author  was  Dr. 
Nicholas  Bownd,  a  reasoner  of  great  ability  and  a  writer 
of  unusual  clearness  and  force.  His  book  had  a  remarkable 
popularity  and  exerted  a  prodigious  influence  on  the 
thought  of  his  age.  The  book  was  so  mighty  that  the 
government  attempted  to  suppress  it,  but  when  its  re-pub- 
lication was  prohibited  its  pages  were  copied  by  hand,  and 
the  manuscripts  were  industriously  circulated  from  house 
to  house.  The  book  had  a  greater  influence  in  the  creation 
of  the  Puritan  Sabbath  than  any  other  dozen  books  ever 
written.  The  author  foundationed  the  Sabbath  on  the 
fourth  commandment.  He  gave  it  an  Old  Testament  at- 
mosphere, and  his  interpretations  were  similar  to  those  of 
the  Jewish  rabbis.  The  Sabbath  was  made  not  a  feast  but 
a  fast,  and  numerous  examples  were  given  of  the  dire 
consequences  which  had  overtaken  persons  who  had  in 
one  way  or  another  desecrated  the  Holy  Day.    The  Puri- 

[213] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

tans  of  Scotland  and  England  read  the  book  with  avidity 
and  awestruck  hearts,  and  among  the  makers  of  the  New 
England  Sabbath  Nicholas  Bownd  must  be  given  high 
place. 

Starting  with  the  idea  that  the  day  must  not  be  dese- 
crated by  sport  or  toil,  it  is  interesting  to  note  how  the 
idea  stiffened  and  hardened  under  the  attacks  to  which  it 
was  subjected.  We  always  prize  most  highly  the  treasure 
we  are  in  danger  of  losing.  We  seldom  think  of  our  health 
so  long  as  we  have  it.  But  when  it  threatens  to  slip  away 
from  us  its  value  becomes  inestimable,  and  we  count  it  the 
chief  of  our  blessings.  It  is  the  thing  which  we  fight  for 
which  looms  large  in  our  eyes.  The  Puritans  were  obliged 
to  struggle  for  their  Sabbath,  and  it  was  because  of  this 
struggle  that  it  became  more  and  more  their  most  highly 
prized  possession.  When  Henry  VIII  tore  England  from 
the  See  of  Rome  he  remained  in  many  ways  a  Catholic 
and  so  did  a  majority  of  his  people.  They  liked  the  Catholic 
candles  and  vestments  and  many  of  the  ceremonies  and 
also  the  Roman  Catholic  Sunday.  Elizabeth  was  like  her 
father,  and  had  a  fondness  for  many  of  the  features  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  When  James  I  came  to  the  throne  he 
sided  with  the  Catholic  party  in  wanting  a  Sabbath  which 
was  not  too  strict.  The  Catholic  church  had  from  early 
times  made  Sunday  not  a  holy  day  but  a  holiday.  Catholics 
were  expected  to  attend  Mass  in  the  morning,  but  after 
that  they  were  at  liberty  to  do  what  they  pleased.  As  it 
was  possible  to  attend  Mass  early,  practically  the  whole  of 
Sunday  could  be  devoted  to  amusement.  Dances  were  held 
on  the  green,  men  baited  bulls  and  bears,  and  others  prac- 
ticed at  archery,  theatrical  plays  —  called  Interludes  — 
were  acted,  and  the  whole  day  was  given  over  to  frivolity 
and  fun.     Against  this  degradation  of  the  day  the  Puritans 

[  214  ] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

entered  a  fiery  protest.  But  James  was  determined  that 
many  of  the  Sunday  games  and  sports  should  go  on,  and 
writing  a  declaration  to  this  effect  it  was  published  in  what 
was  called  the  "  Book  of  Sports,"  and  through  the  Arch- 
bishop this  Book  of  Sports  was  ordered  read  in  all  the 
pulpits.  Many  Puritan  ministers  refused  to  obey  the  man- 
date and  were  driven  forthwith  from  their  churches.  One 
of  the  causes,  then,  of  the  quarrel  between  the  Anglican 
church  and  the  Puritans  was  this  Sabbath  question.  The 
thrusting  of  that  Book  of  Sports  upon  the  Puritan  preachers 
was  one  of  the  most  exasperating  of  all  the  acts  of  tyranny 
of  which  the  Anglican  church  was  guilty.  Stung  to  despera- 
tion Puritans  began  to  find  their  way  to  Holland,  but  even 
there  the  Sabbath  was  shamefully  disregarded,  and  one  of 
the  reasons  why  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  came  to  the  New 
World  was  because  they  wanted  the  liberty  to  keep  the 
Sabbath  in  accordance  with  what  they  thought  to  be  the 
will  of  God.  When,  after  the  anchoring  of  the  Mayflower, 
Miles  Standish  and  his  little  company  started  out  to  rec- 
onnoiter,  they  came  on  Saturday  to  an  island,  now  called 
Clark's  Island,  and  although  the  long-looked-for  mainland 
lay  full  in  sight  and  every  man  was  eager  to  put  his  foot 
upon  the  beautiful  and  promised  shore,  they  would  go  no 
farther,  because  it  was  the  Sabbath,  and  they  would  not 
begin  their  life  in  the  new  world  with  any  profanation  of 
God's  holy  day.  It  was  in  that  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  Sab- 
bath that  the  history  of  New  England  began. 

In  such  an  atmosphere  and  with  such  a  history  behind 
them,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  Sabbath  obser- 
vation and  legislation  developed  as  they  did.  The  day  was 
hedged  round  jealously  and  guarded  with  almost  frantic 
zeal,  so  fearful  were  they  that  this  precious  inheritance 
should  suffer  outrage  or  dishonor.    What  happened  among 

[215] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

the  rabbis  in  Palestine  long  before,  came  to  pass  again  in 
New  England.  Men  became  fussy  in  regard  to  Sabbath 
observance,  punctilious  and  fanatical,  and  the  day,  with 
many,  lost  much  of  what  rightfully  belongs  to  the  Lord's 
Day,  because  of  the  legal  atmosphere  through  which  it  was 
studied.  A  tone  of  severity  passed  into  it,  it  was  made  too 
sober  and  constricted.  There  was  not  enough  in  it  of  the 
joy  of  the  Lord.  But  we  can  see  how  it  all  happened.  Life 
in  those  days  was  grim  and  hard.  The  early  settlers  had 
a  tremendous  struggle.  At  their  door  were  wild  beasts 
and  savage  men,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  were 
implacable  enemies  constantly  plotting  their  destruction. 
How  fearful  was  the  situation  can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that 
it  was  over  a  century  after  the  discovery  of  America  be- 
fore a  permanent  settlement  was  made  on  the  New  England 
coast.  Not  till  the  Puritans  came  were  men  found  of  suffi- 
cient stamina  and  grit  to  wage  successfully  the  bitter  and 
harrowing  warfare.  Isolated  and  harassed,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  their  views  of  life  were  not  always  well 
balanced,  and  that  something  of  the  severity  of  their  fight 
for  existence  passed  into  their  interpretations  and  religious 
practices.  The  New  England  Sabbath  was  not  the  prod- 
uct of  normal  conditions,  but  developed  in  a  time  of  strain 
and  stress,  when  it  was  easy  for  earnest  and  God-fearing 
men  to  become  morbid  in  their  conscience  and  to  go  to  ex- 
tremes in  their  efforts  to  find  and  live  the  truth.  We  can 
admire  and  reverence  the  men  even  while  we  are  unwilling 
to  accept  in  all  respects  their  conception  of  the  Lord's 
day  and  refuse  at  many  points  to  follow  their  example. 

The  Sunday  problem  is  still  alive.  It  could  not  be 
settled  in  the  seventeenth  century  for  the  people  living 
now.  The  Puritan  solution  is  clearly  inadequate,  and  we 
have  not  yet  formed  a  satisfactory  one  of  our  own.     The 

[216] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

problem  seems  to  grow  more  difficult  all  the  time.  It 
bristles  with  perplexities.  Nowhere  is  it  more  compli- 
cated and  baffling  than  in  a  great  American  city  like  New 
York.  Our  city  is  an  aggregation  of  the  representatives 
of  many  nations  and  races,  holding  various  and  conflicting 
traditions,  and  apparently  incapable  of  being  brought  into 
any  unity  of  opinion  or  practice  in  regard  to  a  Sabbath. 
When  two  great  religions  meet  each  other,  one  holding 
that  the  seventh  day,  and  the  other  maintaining  that  the 
first  day  is  the  heaven-appointed  Day  of  Rest,  it  is  not  easy 
to  work  out  a  scheme  of  public  policy  which  will  do  justice 
and  mercy  to  all.  The  works  of  necessity  have  increased 
amazingly  since  colonial  days.  The  lives  of  men  under  the 
influence  of  inventions  and  the  progress  of  democracy  have 
become  wondrously  intertwined,  and  our  lives  are  bound 
up  together  more  tightly  now  than  in  any  preceding  age. 
Our  civilization  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  all  men  to  drop  their  work  on  any  one  day 
of  the  week.  The  area  of  necessary  labor  has  been  enor- 
mously expanded,  and  to  draw  the  line  between  works 
necessary  and  works  unnecessary  is  a  difficult  if  not  im- 
possible task.  There  are  thousands  of  steamships  on  the 
oceans,  and  these  cannot  on  Saturday  night  put  out  the 
engine  fires  and  drift  until  Monday  morning.  Steamships 
are  obliged  to  plow  straight  on  through  the  week.  Trans- 
continental trains,  with  their  passengers  and  freight, 
cannot  well  stop  at  Saturday  midnight  wherever  they 
chance  to  be,  and  resume  their  movement  twenty-four 
hours  later.  The  policemen  in  a  city  cannot  on  Saturday 
evening  lay  down  their  sticks  and  badges  and  take  them 
up  again  on  Monday  morning.  Police  protection  is  neces- 
sary seven  days  a  week.  The  members  of  the  fire  depart- 
ment cannot  lock  up  the  engine  house  at  the  end  of  the  week 

[  217  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

and  report  for  duty  a  day  later.  Fire  is  no  respecter  of 
days,  and  cities  are  as  likely  to  burn  down  on  Sunday  as 
on  any  other  day  of  the  week.  The  apothecary  must  keep 
his  door  always  open,  for  people  get  sick  and  medicines  are 
needed  on  Sunday.  The  plumber  must  be  always  on  call, 
for  a  water  pipe  may  burst  Sunday  morning,  and  unless 
immediately  repaired  measureless  damage  will  follow.  In 
the  great  manufacturing  districts  fires  must  be  kept  in 
the  furnaces  and  men  must  look  after  these  fires  no  less 
on  Sunday  than  on  Saturday  or  Monday.  A  host  of  cooks 
and  waiters  must  toil  on  the  Lord's  day,  for  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  city  people  are  living  in  hotels  or  in  apartment 
houses  dependent  on  hotels,  and  it  is  no  longer  possible  to 
do  all  of  the  cooking  on  Saturday  and  all  of  the  dishwashing 
on  Monday.  Where  will  you  draw  the  line  between  what 
is  necessary  and  what  can  be  dispensed  with?  A  day 
without  labor  is  in  our  times  an  impossibility. 

If  toil  is  encroaching  on  the  Sabbath,  so  also  is  recreation. 
Within  the  last  generation  the  world  has  received  a  new 
gospel,  the  gospel  of  play.  Men  from  the  beginning  have 
played  when  they  could,  but  play  in  past  ages  was  from 
impulse.  Men  now  play  not  only  from  impulse,  but  be- 
cause science  teaches  that  play  is  a  part  of  man's  duty. 
All  work  and  no  play  is  not  according  to  the  intentions  of 
the  God  who  created  the  human  body.  But  when  are  men 
going  to  play  if,  obliged  to  work  six  days  in  the  week,  they 
have  no  leisure  but  on  Sunday?  Our  forefathers  knew 
nothing  of  two  systems  which  our  civilization  has  created, 
first  the  factory  system  under  which  tens  of  thousands  of 
men  and  women  are  crowded  together  in  factories  and  mills, 
where  from  Monday  morning  until  Saturday  night  they 
labor  amidst  the  clank  and  roar  of  machinery,  and  often 
in  an  atmosphere  in  which  human  beings  cannot  get  the 

[218] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

oxygen  which  the  blood  demands;    and  second,  the  office 
system  under  which  thousands  of  men  are  stowed  away 
in  great  office  buildings,  each  one  shut  up  in  a  little  pigeon- 
hole of  a  room,  to  be  released,  in  many  cases,  only  at  the 
end  of  the  week.    What  are  these  men  going  to  do  on  Sun- 
day?   If  recreation  is  essential,  and  if  it  is  not  possible  on 
six  days  of  the  week  to  get  it,  there  is  likelihood  that  the 
Sabbath  will  be  made  more  and  more  a  day  of  play.    More- 
over we  have  a  wider  conception  of  human  nature  than 
men  had  two  centuries  ago.    We  see  that  there  are  many 
other  faculties  in  the  soul  besides  the  praying  faculty  and 
the  faculty  which  sings  songs  of  praise.  There  is  a  recreation 
of  the  eye  and  of  the  ear  and  of  the  intellect,  and  also  of 
the  lungs  and  the  heart  and  the  muscles,  and  a  value  is 
now  given  to  pictures  and  music  and  literature  and  out-of- 
door  life  which  had  not  come  into  the  Puritan's  ken.    But 
when  you  begin  to  travel  in  this  direction,  where  are  you 
going  to  stop?    At  what  point  will  you  draw  the  line  in  the 
following  list  of  possible  sources  of  innocent  enjoyment  on 
the  Lord's  day?    Will  you  open  the  public  libraries  of  the 
city  seven  days  in  the  week?    Many  persons  have  no  books 
at  home,  and  others  cannot  consult  rare  or  costly  volumes 
in  the  library  except  on  Sunday.    Shall  the  libraries  there- 
fore be  open  on  the  Sabbath?    But  if  the  libraries  why  not 
the  art  galleries?    Many  persons  like  pictures  better  than 
books,  and  get  more  inspiration  from  them.     What  will 
you  do,  then,  with  the  pictures  owned  by  the  city:   draw 
a  curtain  over  them  one  day  out  of  every  seven,  as  the 
father  of  John  Ruskin  always  did  over  his,  or  will  you 
expose  all  your  works  of  art  on  Sunday  that  everyone  may 
look  who  will?     If  the  art  galleries  are  open  on  Sunday, 
why  not  the   music  halls?     Music  is  to  many  far  more 
uplifting   than   either  books  or  pictures,  and  why  should 

[219] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

not  the  lovers  of  music  be  given  what  they  want  on  the 
Day  of  Rest?  Why  not  let  all  the  singers  sing  and  all  the 
lovers  of  music  listen  and  thus  contribute  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  musical  taste  of  the  city?  If,  however,  the 
music  halls  are  to  be  open,  what  do  you  say  as  to  the 
theaters?  Some  people  like  speaking  better  than  singing. 
A  play  means  more  to  them  than  a  concert.  A  drama  is 
a  sermon,  whereas  a  song  is  a  nuisance.  If  good  singing  is 
wholesome  why  is  not  also  good  acting,  and  why  should 
not  everything  that  is  wholesome  be  sanctioned  on  the 
Day  of  the  Lord?  There  are  many,  however,  who  care 
little  for  music  or  acting,  but  who  are  enthusiastic  over 
out-of-door  games.  They  like  baseball  and  football  and 
polo  and  rowing  and  wrestling  and  running.  Such  exercises 
are  invigorating  to  those  who  take  part  in  them,  and  ex- 
hilarating to  those  who  look  on.  They  take  place  in  the 
open  air,  which  has  advantages  over  the  theater  and  music 
hall,  and  if  you  are  going  to  give  books  to  those  who  like 
books,  music  to  those  who  appreciate  music,  pictures  to 
those  to  whom  pictures  appeal,  theatrical  productions  to 
those  who  are  fond  of  the  drama,  why  not  give  games 
to  those  who  have  a  taste  for  athletic  sports?  Where  are 
you  going  to  draw  the  line?  On  what  grounds  will  you 
draw  it?  Horse-racing  is  also  enjoyable  to  many  worthy 
and  law-abiding  citizens,  and  if  men  may  run  races  on 
Sunday,  why  not  horses  also?  There  are  many  tastes  and 
many  minds  and  many  needs  in  the  population  of  a  great 
city,  and  where  are  you  going  to  draw  a  line  between  the 
things  which  may  wisely  be  permitted  and  the  things 
which  must  inexorably  be  forbidden?  The  subject  is  so 
perplexing  that  many  excellent  people  have  fallen  down 
in  a  fit  of  helplessness  and  confessed  that  they  are  in- 
capable of  dealing  with  so  complicated  a  problem.  So  far 

[  220  ] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

as  they  can  see  the  only  way  out  is  to  let  everybody  do  on 
Sunday  what  he  pleases.  Make  it  a  day  of  liberty,  they 
say,  and  do  not  attempt  to  bind  it  round  with  restrictive 
regulations.  All  Sunday  legislation,  they  assert,  is  Puri- 
tanic, and  therefore  antiquated,  and  consequently  to  be 
abolished.  A  free  Sunday  for  free  Americans,  this  is  the 
conclusion  to  which  many  a  man  reared  in  a  Christian  home 
has  been  driven  by  the  complexity  of  the  Sunday  problem. 
But  however  confusing  the  question,  there  are  a  few 
things  which  every  one  of  us  should  see  clearly  and  lay  hold 
of  with  both  hands.  The  Day  of  Rest  was  made  for  man. 
God  made  it,  and  he  made  it  for  man  because  man  needs 
it.  We  are  to  keep  one  day  out  of  every  seven  free  from 
our  customary  toil,  not  simply  because  of  what  is  written 
in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  but  because  of  what  is 
written  in  the  structure  of  man's  body  and  mind.  Sab- 
bath observance  must  not  be  foundationed  solely  on  any 
sentence  in  the  Bible,  but  on  the  law  of  God  as  expressed 
in  the  human  constitution,  and  as  revealed  in  human 
history.  Moses  did  not  invent  the  Sabbath.  It  was  old 
before  Moses  was  born.  It  did  not  begin  with  the  father 
of  the  faithful.  It  existed  thousands  of  years  before  Abra- 
ham. It  has  been  traced  by  the  scholars  through  the 
centuries  back  to  the  world's  far-off  morning.  It  is  a 
human  institution,  probably  as  old  as  humanity.  It  has 
always  had  its  enemies,  but  they  have  not  been  able  to 
destroy  it.  At  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution  the 
National  Convention  voted  to  abolish  Sunday  from  France. 
The  experiment  was  tried  and  failed.  In  a  few  years  the 
penitent  nation  came  back  and  picked  up  again  the  dis- 
carded day.  No  people  can  dispense  with  it  and  prosper. 
Disraeli  did  not  exaggerate  when  he  declared  that  the 
Sabbath  is  the  corner-stone  of  civilization. 

[221  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

If  the  Sabbath  belongs  to  man,  then  every  human 
being  should  be  permitted  to  possess  and  enjoy  it.  No 
one  should  be  allowed  to  rob  him  of  it.  It  is  man's  birth- 
right, and  to  lose  it  leaves  him  poor  indeed.  All  men  can- 
not rest  on  the  same  day,  but  society  should  make  it 
possible  for  every  man  to  have  one  day  out  of  every  seven 
free  from  toil.  I  have  seen  it  stated  that  two  million  people 
in  England  are  obliged  to  labor  seven  days  out  of  every 
week.  If  that  be  true,  it  is  a  terrible  arraignment  of  the 
Christian  civilization  of  England.  The  case  is  worse,  I 
presume,  in  the  United  States.  A  committee  appointed 
not  long  ago  to  investigate  the  situation  in  our  own  city, 
reported  that  three  hundred  thousand  men  and  women  in 
Greater  New  York  never  have  a  day  of  rest.  In  order  to 
hold  their  positions  at  all  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  labor 
seven  days  a  week.  This  is  a  damning  blot  on  the  fame 
of  our  city.  It  is  an  outrage  on  humanity,  a  sin  against 
Almighty  God.  Every  Christian  should  burn  with  indig- 
nation in  the  presence  of  a  wrong  so  cruel  and  so  inhuman. 
A  man  who  must  work  seven  days  out  of  every  week  is  a 
drudge  and  a  slave.  Society  has  reduced  him  to  a  galling 
and  degrading  bondage.  Working  seven  days  at  the 
same  task  every  week,  he  cannot  be  the  man  that  God 
intended  him  to  be.  So  long  as  there  is  in  the  world  one 
human  being  who  is  deprived  of  his  weekly  day  of  rest, 
there  is  a  wrong  to  be  righted  and  a  tragedy  to  be  brought 
to  an  end.  The  pulpit  has  no  clearer  duty  than  thunder- 
ing God's  law  upon  this  point  into  the  ears  of  every  gener- 
ation. The  work  of  the  church  of  Christ  will  not  be 
ended  until  every  man  is  in  secure  possession  of  a  Sabbath 
day. 

There  is  no  reason  why  any  of  us  should  be  ashamed  of 
the  Sabbath  as  it  was  observed  by  the  Puritans.     They 

[  222  ] 


THE  PURITAN  SABBATH  AND  OURS 

stood  for  a  divine  principle,  and  however  mistaken  they 
may  have  been  in  the  appHcation  of  it,  they  saw  with 
clearness  the  divine  character  of  the  Day  of  Rest.  We  may 
smile  at  the  multitudinous  thorns  of  the  hedge  which 
they  set  about  the  Sabbath,  but  we  must  not  forget  what 
lovely  things  grew  and  blossomed  inside  the  hedge  — 
flowers  whose  perfume,  wafted  on  all  the  air,  has  made 
this  a  sweeter  world.  Take  up  some  day  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  novel,  "  Norwood,"  and  read  again  his  chapter 
on  the  New  England  Sabbath.  Beecher  departed  far  from 
the  Puritan  at  many  points,  but  his  eyes  were  never  dim 
to  the  glory  of  the  New  England  Sunday,  and  his  heart 
was  sensitive  to  the  numberless  blessings  which  the  New 
England  Sunday  brought.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  departed 
farther  from  Puritanism  than  did  Beecher,  but  to  the  end 
he  revered  the  Puritan  for  what  he  had  done  for  the  Sab- 
bath. Sunday  is  the  core,  he  used  to  say,  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. When  De  Tocqueville  visited  our  country  eighty 
years  ago  he  was  profoundly  impressed  by  the  extraordi- 
nary influence  of  New  England.  When  he  came  to  write 
his  masterly  book,  "  Democracy  in  America,"  he  said: 
"  The  principles  of  New  England  spread  at  first  to  the 
neighboring  states;  then  they  passed  successively  to  the 
more  distant  ones,  and  at  length  they  imbued  the  whole 
confederation."  No  one  familiar  with  American  history 
can  question  that  much  of  this  New  England  influence 
was  due  to  the  tone  of  mind  created  and  to  the  principles 
developed  on  the  day  that  was  kept  holy  to  the  Lord. 

Beautiful,  life-giving  and  glorious  day,  never  more 
needed  than  now,  and  never  in  more  imminent  peril,  let 
us,  as  Christians,  do  what  we  can  to  keep  the  day  unspoiled, 
and  to  hand  it  down  to  our  children  as  a  rich  legacy.  Let 
us  each  one  build  our  example  into  a  bulwark,  protecting 

[  ^^Z  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

the  day  from  the  forces  which  are  arrayed  against  it.  Hol- 
land is  saved  by  her  dykes.  The  North  Sea,  voracious  and 
pitiless,  pounds  at  them  incessantly,  trying  to  wear  them 
away.  There  is  an  ocean  of  frivolity  and  lawlessness  and 
greed  everlastingly  dashing  itself  against  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  and  it  is  Christian  men  and  women  who  are  the 
living  material  which  must  be  built  into  the  dykes  which 
shall  save  from  destruction  one  of  humanity's  divinest 
and  most  indispensable  possessions.  Be  careful,  then,  of 
your  example.  Show  by  your  conduct  that  you  love  and 
prize  the  day.  Make  it  different  from  all  the  other  days. 
Adorn  it.  Make  it  the  jewel  of  the  week.  Keep  the  purple 
in  the  day.  Do  not  let  it  fade.  Treasure  it.  Consecrate  it. 
Make  it  glorious.  Read  on  the  Sabbath  only  the  best 
books.  Think  only  the  highest  thoughts.  Nourish  only 
the  noblest  feelings.  Let  it  be  a  day  without  a  thorn.  Re- 
lease yourself  from  toil,  and  also  from  downward  looking 
thoughts  and  worry.  Banish  the  gloom.  It  is  the  day 
of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  Get  into  the  depths  of  the 
meaning  of  it.  Climb  to  the  tops  of  the  truths  embodied 
in  it.  Be  in  the  spirit.  Say  to  yourself  and  to  others: 
"  This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made;  we  will  rejoice 
and  be  glad  in  it." 


[224] 


XIII 

CONGREGATIONALISM  ^ 

"  Look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  were  hewn  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit 
whence  ye  were  digged. ^^  —  Isaiah  51:1. 

That  exhortation  has  on  it  the  earmarks  of  the  Hebraic 
spirit.  A  Hebrew  preacher  was  never  so  much  at  home 
as  when  he  was  deahng  with  the  past.  It  was  his  delight 
to  carry  his  countrymen  back  over  the  road  along  which 
they  had  traveled  and  to  revive  the  memories  of  the  ex- 
periences through  which  the  nation  had  come.  He  loved 
the  past  not  because  he  was  the  victim  of  that  morbid 
sentimentalism  which  loves  to  brood  over  scenes  which  have 
vanished,  but  because  he  was  so  intensely  interested  in  the 
future.  The  Hebrew  preacher  felt  himself  called  of  God 
to  make  the  future  glorious,  and  in  order  to  do  this  he 
was  obliged  to  use  the  past.  He  dealt  with  a  people  who 
were  easily  discouraged  and  in  order  to  brace  their  droop- 
ing spirits  he  held  up  before  them  the  glowing  record  of 
God's  dealings  with  their  fathers.  By  unrolling  history  he 
showed  them  how  through  all  the  centuries  every  night 
had  dawned  into  a  broader  day,  and  every  crown  of  thorns 
had  been  transfigured  into  a  crown  of  glory.  When  his 
hearers  grew  faint-hearted  and  approached  great  duties 
with  fear  and  doubtings  he  heartened  them  and  drove  them 
forward  by  urging  them  to  take  one  good  long  look  back- 
ward. The  vision  of  what  had  been  made  it  easier  to  be- 
lieve in  the  things  which  were  to  be.  When  men  saw  by- 
gone centuries  stand  behind  them  each  one  jewelled  with 

1  Dec.  IS,  1901. 

[  225  ] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

the  mercy  of  the  Lord,  they  faced  the  future  with  un- 
troubled faces  assured  that  He  who  had  begun  a  good 
work  in  them  would  perform  it  until  the  final  day.  The 
vanished  generations  were  colaborers  with  the  preacher, 
driving  into  the  hearts  of  living  men  strong  reasons  for 
expecting  new  revelations  of  God's  grace.  And  so  it  was 
well-nigh  impossible  for  a  Hebrew  preacher  to  preach 
without  bringing  into  a  sermon  a  bit  of  Hebrew  history. 
He  never  wearied  of  recalling  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Ja- 
cob: he  was  never  more  eloquent  than  when  relating  the 
wonders  of  deliverance  wrought  by  God  through  Moses. 
It  was  difficult  for  a  Hebrew  poet  to  write  a  poem  without 
weaving  into  it  some  reference  to  the  goodness  with  which 
God  had  crowned  the  years.  The  Hebrew  leaders  were 
always  saying:  Look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  were  hewn, 
and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  were  digged. 

But  there  was  a  still  deeper  reason  why  the  Hebrew 
preacher  made  such  constant  use  of  history.  The  Hebrews 
were  dominated  always  by  the  conviction  that  they  were  a 
peculiar  people,  intrusted  with  a  unique  mission  and  ap- 
pointed to  a  glorious  destiny.  From  the  very  earliest  times 
it  had  been  borne  in  upon  them  that  to  them  was  given 
what  was  given  to  no  other  people  and  that  through  them 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  ultimately  to  be  blessed. 
To  men  possessed  with  such  a  belief  all  experience  must 
become  sacred.  Everything  that  happened  to  the  He- 
brews was  supposed  by  them  to  have  a  divine  significance. 
Every  event  was  a  guide  post  pointing  the  direction  in 
which  the  people  ought  to  move,  every  experience  a  win- 
dow opening  out  upon  the  Eternal.  Their  history  was 
their  Bible.  It  was  the  food  upon  which  they  reared  their 
children.  It  was  the  literature  which  was  read  in  the 
synagogues,  it  was  history  which  the  Levites  sang  in  the 

[  226  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Temple  service.  Indeed  our  Bible  is  little  more  than  a 
book  of  history.  The  majority  of  its  books  are  historical, 
and  the  others  are  adorned  and  illumined  by  quotations 
from  the  historians.  If  we  have  ears  to  hear  we  can  hear 
the  old  book  saying  to  us:  '*  Look  unto  the  rock  whence 
ye  were  hewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  were 
digged.  Look  unto  Abraham  your  father,  and  unto  Sarah 
that  bare  you!  " 

Indeed  the  history  of  every  nation  is  to  that  nation  a 
Bible,  a  book  which  ought  to  be  studied  with  unfailing 
enthusiasm  and  religious  care.  In  the  experience  of  a 
people  God's  character  is  revealed  and  his  will  concerning 
that  people  is  made  increasingly  clear.  Every  nation  will 
be  strong  in  proportion  to  its  willingness  to  gather  up  the 
lessons  which  preceding  generations  have  worked  out  and 
to  drink  in  the  spirit  of  the  mighty  men  who  have  made 
the  nation  what  it  is.  I  wonder  if  we  Americans  are  study- 
ing our  history  .as  we  ought  to  study  it?  Do  we  earnestly 
teach  it  to  our  children  in  our  homes,  does  it  hold  the  place 
in  our  schools  which  it  ought  to  hold,  is  it  used  in  the 
Christian  pulpit  as  frequently  and  effectively  as  it  ought  to 
be  used  by  the  men  who  are  the  ordained  leaders  of  a 
people  who  like  the  Hebrews  are  also  a  peculiar  people 
and  to  whom  God  has  entrusted  a  mission  to  man- 
kind? 

If  some  boy  should  ask  why  not  preach  every  Sunday 
from  a  sentence  taken  from  a  United  States  history,  the 
answer  is  that  while  the  history  of  every  nation  is  in  the 
deepest  sense  a  Bible,  there  is  a  value  to  the  Hebrew 
history  which  no  other  history  can  match.  The  Hebrews 
had  a  capacity  for  religion  quite  exceptional  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  They  had  an  insight  into  spiritual  laws  and 
processes  and  a  genius  for  interpreting  spiritual  phenomena 

[227] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

given  to  no  other  people.  Because  of  their  moral  sensitive- 
ness and  their  responsiveness  to  the  movements  of  the 
Eternal  Spirit,  God  was  able  to  work  out  through  them 
wonders  which  he  could  do  through  no  one  else.  Out  of 
that  race  he  could  bring  a  man  in  whom  it  was  possible 
for  the  Godhead  to  dwell,  and  who  could  reveal  to  all  the 
world  both  the  disposition  of  God  and  the  possibilities  of 
man.  For  this  reason  the  Bible,  though  largely  a  book  of 
history,  is  exalted  above  all  other  books.  To  it  is  given  a 
name  which  is  above  all  other  names,  and  to  it  belongs  a 
power  which  no  other  book  can  claim.  In  the  reading  of 
American  history,  therefore,  the  Bible  is  a  lamp  to  our 
feet  and  a  light  to  our  path.  We  will  count  our  history 
sacred,  but  we  will  hold  it  up  in  the  light  which  streams 
upon  it  from  the  Book  of  Books,  that  in  this  light  we  may 
read  in  our  own  national  experiences  the  wondrous  messages 
of  God. 

December  may  be  fairly  counted  the  most  historical 
month  in  the  calendar.  It  is  the  month  when  Americans 
are  most  inclined  to  look  unto  the  rock  whence  they  were 
hewn,  and  to  consider  the  wonderful  way  in  which  the 
Lord  God  Almighty  has  led  us.  It  is  the  month  of  New 
England  dinners.  The  December  air  is  made  warm  with 
the  breath  of  orators  who  tell  again  the  deathless  story  of 
the  Pilgrims.  The  old  poems  are  recited,  the  old  hymns 
are  sung,  the  old  memories  are  freshened  and  ten  thousand 
hearts  are  cleansed  and  strengthened  by  remembering 
Abraham  our  father  and  Sarah  who  bare  us.  In  har- 
mony then  with  the  spirit  of  the  time  let  us  think  this 
morning  about  that  branch  of  the  Christian  church  with 
which  most  of  us  are  identified,  for  by  thinking  of  it  we 
shall  be  carried  into  the  very  heart  of  our  national  history. 
Our  subject  is: 

[228] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

Congregationalism,  its  Origin,  Principles,  and  Mission 
In  order  to  grasp  the  significance  of  Congregationalism 
we  must  first  master  the  meaning  of  Puritanism.  What 
is  Puritanism?  Whence  did  it  come,  what  did  it  do,  when 
did  it  vanish?  These  are  questions  which  ought  to  have 
answers  in  the  mind  of  every  intelligent  American  citizen. 
Puritanism  in  its  essence  is  a  zeal  for  purity,  in  doctrine, 
worship  and  conduct.  This  zeal  has  always  been  in  the 
world.  Every  land  and  time  has  produced  its  Puritans. 
There  were  Puritans  among  the  Hebrews.  Elijah  was  one, 
Isaiah  another,  Ezra  another,  John  the  Baptist  another. 
From  the  first  century  of  Christian  history  until  now  there 
have  been  men  who  have  resisted  the  corruptions  of  their 
day,  and  hungered  and  thirsted  after  righteousness.  The 
deeper  the  corruption  the  hotter  has  been  the  desire  to 
consume  it.  In  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  of  our  era 
the  Christian  church  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  company  of 
Roman  politicians  who  converted  the  simple  Gospel  of  our 
Lord  into  a  cumbrous  and  mysterious  thing  which  only 
ecclesiastical  experts  could  understand.  The  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints  was  wrapped  round  with  many  so- 
called  traditions  and  curious  interpretations,  the  simple 
worship  of  early  days  was  elaborated  into  a  gorgeous  cere- 
monial decked  out  with  rites  and  features  taken  from  the 
pagan  temples ;  the  simple  government  of  the  early  churches 
was  developed  into  a  vast  system  along  lines  suggested  by 
the  structure  of  the  Roman  Empire,  officials  rising,  one 
order  above  another,  in  a  compact  and  mighty  hierarchy, 
at  whose  top  there  sat  the  august  Bishop  of  Rome.  Under 
the  sway  of  this  hierarchy  the  virtues  and  graces  of  the 
Christian  life  in  many  places  drooped  and  died,  clergymen 
in  appalling  numbers  became  dissolute  and  idle,  while  the 
masses  of  the  people  floundered  in  ignorance  and  super- 

[  229  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

stition.  From  the  very  first  there  were  men  who  protested 
against  the  encroaching  tyrannies  and  who  endeavored  to 
stem  the  devastating  tide.  From  the  eighth  century  to  the 
thirteenth  there  were  isolated  companies  of  Christians  who 
uttered  their  protest  against  prevaiHng  wrongs,  and  strove 
to  reproduce  the  pure  and  saintly  life  of  Christ.  In  the 
fourteenth  century  an  English  priest,  John  Wycliffe,  cried 
out  against  the  usurpations  and  tyrannies  of  Rome  with 
a  voice  that  shook  the  universal  church.  He  was  hated 
by  the  hierarchy,  and  had  it  not  been  for  powerful  de- 
fenders he  would  have  been  promptly  silenced.  After  his 
death  his  body  was  taken  from  its  grave,  burned  to  ashes, 
and  the  ashes  were  strewn  in  the  little  brook  which  flowed 
in  front  of  the  church  in  which  this  intrepid  servant  of  God 
had  fired  the  hearts  of  Englishmen  by  telling  them  the 
old,  old  story  of  Jesus  and  his  love.  In  the  fifteenth  century 
a  Bohemian  professor,  John  Huss,  following  the  example 
of  Wycliffe,  protested  against  the  Roman  abominations, 
and  for  this  he  was  seized  and  burned,  and  his  ashes  were 
scattered  in  the  river  Rhine.  At  the  close  of  the  same 
century  an  Italian  priest,  Savonarola,  enraged  the  hierarchy 
by  his  flaming  thunderbolts,  and  he  was  strangled,  and  his 
body  burned.  Near  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
a  German  priest,  Martin  Luther,  uttered  a  protest  so  loud 
and  thrilling  that  Northern  Europe  rose  to  its  feet  in 
revolt  against  the  corruption  of  the  Roman  church.  A 
few  years  later  the  English  King,  Henry  VIII,  wrenched 
England  out  of  the  clutches  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and 
this  gave  opportunity  for  the  forces  which  had  been  work- 
ing since  the  days  of  Wycliffe  to  manifest  themselves  in 
efforts  for  a  thorough  reform.  These  efforts  held  in  check 
by  the  conservative  king  became  more  radical  and  vigor- 
ous under  Edward  VI.     The  movement  was  checked  by 

[230] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

Bloody  Mary,  but  gained  fresh  momentum  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth.  It  grew  in  volume  and  might  through  the 
reigns  of  the  first  two  of  the  Stuarts  and  reached  its  con- 
summation in  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth.  Puritanism 
then,  as  that  word  is  used  by  English-speaking  peoples,  is 
the  movement  for  purity  in  doctrine,  worship  and  life 
which  began  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  as  a  protest  against 
prevailing  corruptions,  which  became  a  political  force  in 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  which  came  to  its  coronation 
in  the  protectorate  of  Oliver  Cromwell. 

The  Puritans  were  the  English  men  and  women  whose 
hearts  were  hot  for  release  from  Roman  bondage,  and  who 
struggled  to  bring  the  Christian  church  back  to  the  sim- 
plicity and  purity  of  the  Gospels.  We  ought  to  take  a 
close,  long  look  at  these  men,  for  they  have  been  often 
misunderstood  and  flagrantly  misrepresented.  They  were 
hated  and  resisted  by  many  of  their  neighbors  while  they 
were  alive,  and  have  been  caricatured  and  lampooned  by 
their  enemies  even  to  the  present  hour.  In  the  mind  of 
many  intelligent  persons  now  living  the  Puritans  were 
a  bigoted  and  benighted  race,  a  set  of  sour  faced,  crabbed 
hearted  Christians  who  were  unhappy  themselves  and  made 
it  uncomfortable  for  everybody  else.  According  to  the 
popular  conception  all  Puritans  talked  with  a  nasal  twang, 
dressed  in  uncouth  and  outlandish  ways,  and  took  delight 
in  stripping  life  of  almost  all  that  makes  life  worth  living. 
Their  foibles  and  eccentricities  have  been  so  magnified 
that  some  of  us  have  lost  sight  completely  of  what  the  Puri- 
tan really  was.  He  has  seemed  so  odious  and  ridiculous 
we  have  not  cared  to  ascertain  what  he  actually  did.  The 
mention  of  his  name  has  called  up  before  us  a  sour,  narrow, 
inhuman  individual  from  whom  we  have  hidden  our 
face,    and    a    thing    is    '*  Puritanic "  —  so    some    people 

[  231  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

think  —  whenever    it    is    intolerant,    unreasonable,    and 
gloomy. 

But  we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  become  the  victims 
of  an  uninstructed  imagination.  We  must  study  history 
and  make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  facts.  It  is  not 
safe  to  trust  for  guidance  either  caricatures  or  lampoons 
or  scurrilous  forgeries.  If  we  are  willing  to  do  a  little 
honest  reading  we  discover  that  the  Puritans  were  men  of 
like  passions  with  ourselves,  quite  sensible  and  practical 
and  altogether  human.  They  loved  and  married  and  brought 
up  children  just  as  we  do;  they  bought  and  sold,  made 
money  and  lost  it  just  as  we  do;  they  laughed  and  cried, 
played  and  worked  like  mortals  of  every  land  and  time, 
and  enjoyed  to  the  utmost  the  rich,  glorious  privilege  of 
living.  They  differed  from  one  another  just  as  men  differ 
from  one  another  now-a-days.  It  is  not  fair  to  reduce  the 
Puritans  to  one  common  type  of  disposition,  or  to  set  up 
any  one  individual  and  say:  "  See  there,  that  is  Puritan- 
ism! "  Men  of  the  same  church  or  party  differ  widely  from 
one  another.  Roman  Catholics  are  not  all  alike,  neither  are 
Protestants,  nor  Republicans,  nor  Democrats.  There  were 
Puritans  who  were  glum  and  morbid,  narrow  and  super- 
stitious, but  there  were  others  sunny-hearted  and  the  most 
liberal  men  of  their  generation.  When  we  condemn  such 
men  as  Nehemiah  Wallington  we  must  not  forget  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  genial  and  open-minded,  one  of  the  noblest 
characters  in  English  history.  If  we  dislike  John  Endicott 
with  his  narrow  ideas  and  cruel  interpretations  we  must 
remember  John  Winthrop,  charitable  and  liberal,  beautiful 
and  sane,  one  of  the  very  noblest  figures  in  the  history 
of  our  Republic.  Of  course  there  were  little  Puritans,  mor- 
bid and  fussy,  but  let  us  never  forget  the  great  ones.  There 
were  Puritans  who  shone  in  the  firmament  of  their  times 

[232  ] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

like  stars  of  the  first  magnitude ;  others  flickered  and  sput- 
tered like  tallow  dips,  and  it  is  one  of  these  tallow  dips 
which  the  prejudiced  critic  of  today  seizes  on  and  holds  up 
to  scorn,  saying,  "  Here  is  the  best  which  Puritanism  could 
produce,"  while  all  the  time  he  is  living  in  a  country  flooded 
by  the  light  which  streamed  from  God  into  a  darkened  world 
through  the  great  souls  which  had  been  cleansed  and 
glorified  by  the  Puritan  spirit.  Puritanism  infused  into  the 
greater  natures  which  it  mastered,  so  says  an  English 
scholar  whose  religion  differs  widely  from  that  which  the 
Puritans  professed,  a  solemnity  and  a  power  such  as  have 
but  once  or  twice  been  equalled  in  the  whole  history  of 
mankind.  When  therefore  you  hear  the  jocose  critic  pour- 
ing contempt  upon  the  Puritans,  ask  him  if  he  has  ever 
heard  of  John  Knox,  one  of  the  greatest  giants  who  ever 
from  a  Christian  pulpit  shook  the  hearts  of  men  with  the 
sweet  thunders  of  the  Gospel.  Ask  him  if  he  has  read  John 
Milton,  the  author  of  the  greatest  poem  in  English  litera- 
ture, and  one  of  the  mightiest  geniuses  who  ever  enshrined 
deathless  thought  in  immortal  verse.  Ask  him  if  he  has 
heard  of  John  Bunyan,  the  man  who  wrote  the  greatest 
allegory  ever  written  in  any  language.  Ask  him  if  he 
has  heard  the  name  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  strongest 
man  who  has  sat  on  the  English  throne  since  the  days 
of  William  the  Conqueror.  These  are  only  a  few  of 
an  immortal  company  of  saints  and  heroes  who  stopped 
the  mouths  of  lions  and  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of 
the  aliens. 

And  as  for  what  the  Puritans  did  who  can  tell  the  com- 
pleted story?  When  your  mole-eyed  critic  has  finished 
his  jibes  at  the  nasal  twang  and  the  boorish  manners,  re- 
mind him  of  a  few  of  the  great  things  which  the  Puritans 
accomplished.      When    kingship    under    the    Stuarts    was 

[233  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

climbing  up  the  rounds  of  power  seeking  to  reproduce  on 
English  soil  a  despotism  like  that  of  France  and  Spain,  it 
was  Puritanism  which  boldly  faced  the  conquering  usurper 
and  trod  him  into  the  dust.  When  the  English  church 
was  exercising  an  authority  which  Christ  never  gave  it, 
and  when  church  officers  like  William  Laud  were  cutting 
men's  ears  off  and  slitting  their  noses  and  branding  their 
cheeks  because  they  refused  to  conform  to  ecclesiastical 
customs  which  the  church  had  decreed,  it  was  Puritanism 
w^hich  rebelled  against  the  great  usurpation  and  won  for 
organized  Christianity  the  liberty  which  is  our  pride  and 
glory.  In  an  age  when  Catholic  Spain  ruled  the  seas,  and 
Catholic  Rome  was  making  desperate  efforts  to  regain  the 
lordship  of  the  lands,  it  was  Puritanism  which  shattered 
the  fleets  of  Spain  and  paralyzed  the  armies  of  the  Emis- 
saries of  Rome.  It  was  the  Puritan  spirit  which  braced 
the  hearts  of  twenty  thousand  Englishmen  to  face  the 
dangers  of  the  ocean  and  the  greater  perils  of  an  unknown 
land,  which  twenty  thousand  pioneers  have  done  more 
to  shape  the  structure  of  our  institutions  and  to  fix  our 
moral  and  political  ideals,  and  to  mould  the  temper  and 
disposition  of  our  people  than  any  other  twenty  thousand 
men  and  women  who  have  ever  crossed  the  sea.  Mr.  John 
Fiske  in  the  finest  piece  of  historical  writing  which  ever 
came  from  his  pen,  has  traced  with  a  master's  hand  the 
great  drama  in  which  the  political  center  of  gravity  was 
shifted  from  the  Tiber  and  the  Rhine  to  the  Thames  and 
the  Mississippi,  and  in  his  opinion  the  most  significant 
event  of  all  the  events  which  prophesied  the  final  triumph  of 
the  English  over  the  Roman  idea  of  nation  building  was  the 
migration  of  English  Puritans  across  the  Atlantic  ocean  to 
repeat  in  a  new  environment  and  on  a  far  grander  scale  the 
work  which  their  forefathers  had  wrought  in  Britain.      In 

[  234  ] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

the  mightiest  contest  ever  waged  on  earth  between  two 
contradictory  ideas  Puritanism  was  the  tremendous  militant 
force  that  determined  the  issue. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  Church  and  State  that  we  are  to 
look  for  the  conquests  of  the  Puritan  spirit.    It  was  pointed 
out  long  ago  by  Charles  Kingsley  that  even  in  the  world  of 
fashion  the  Puritans  have  conquered,  and  that  they  have 
determined  for  the  modern   English  speaking  world  the 
canons  of  taste.     In  the  seventeenth  century  the  men  of 
fashion  wore  their  hair  in  graceful  curls  hanging  over  their 
shoulders.     It  seemed  to  the  Puritans  that  a  man  should 
cut  his  hair  short.     In  derision  they  were  called  "  round- 
heads."   But  every  man  to-day  is  a  round-head.    O  Puritan 
thou  hast  conquered!     The  gentlemen  of  the  seventeenth 
century  dressed  in  gaudy  colors.    They  loved  red  and  green 
and  blue.    It  seemed  to  the  Puritans  that  more  sober  colors 
were  becoming.    And  here  again  the  world  has  come  round 
to  where  the  Puritan  took  his  stand.     When  we  dress  in 
brown  and  drab  and  black  we  confess  that  the  Puritan 
was  right.     Three  centuries  ago  it  was  customary  for  men 
to   bedeck   themselves   with   jewelry,    ribbons   and   laces, 
against  which  the  Puritans  rebelled.    To  them  a  man  was 
dressed   in   taste  only  when  he  dressed  plainly.      In   the 
matter  of  dress  and  manners  the  Puritan  triumph  has  been 
complete.    We  no  longer  count  him  a  gentleman  who  was 
counted  such  in  the  days  of  Shakespeare.     The  English 
gallant  of  those  days  seems  to  us  a  dude  or  fop.     His 
pockets  were  filled  with  cards  and  dice,  his  mouth  was 
filled  with  oaths,  and  his  ideas  of  morality  had  not  come 
to  him  from  the  New  Testament.    This  perfumed,  ruffled, 
swaggering  dandy  was  offensive  to  the  Puritan  upon  whom 
a  nobler  ideal  of  manhood  had  dawned.  And  here  again  the 
Puritan  has  conquered.  Even  the  facetious  people  who  make 

[235  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

fun  of  the  Puritans  have  accepted  the  Puritanic  conception 
of  a  gentleman. 

Upon  every  department  of  our  life  these  mighty  men 
have  left  the  prints  of  their  hands,  and  it  is  becoming  in 
us  to  render  them  the  homage  which  is  their  due.  We 
cannot  rightly  interpret  history  until  we  understand  these 
men,  for  in  the  words  of  John  Richard  Green  "  the  whole 
history  of  English  progress  on  its  moral  and  spiritual  side 
has  been  the  history  of  Puritanism."  The  unprejudiced 
scholars  of  all  countries  and  parties  agree  with  Macaulay 
in  saying  "  they  were  the  most  remarkable  body  of  men, 
perhaps,  which  the  world  has  ever  produced."  We  belittle 
ourselves  whenever  we  attempt  to  belittle  them.  We 
show  ourselves  either  ignorant  or  biased  whenever  we  refuse 
to  acknowledge  the  debt  which  the  world  owes  them.  The 
men  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  excusable  for  their 
unjust  judgments  upon  Puritan  conceptions  and  conduct, 
for  they  were  obliged  to  look  at  them  through  a  distorted 
atmosphere  filled  with  prejudice  and  rumor.  But  we  need 
not  be  thus  blinded.  We  can  see  them  through  the  clear 
atmosphere  which  God  throws  round  a  century  out  of 
which  the  life  has  gone:  we  are  far  enough  removed  from 
them  to  view  them  in  the  right  perspective,  and  to  catch 
the  true  proportion  of  their  lives  and  deeds.  We  are  indeed 
ungrateful  and  contemptible  if  we  ever  allow  ourselves  to 
think  or  speak  disrespectfully  of  the  men  who  bought  for  us 
with  agony  and  bloody  sweat  our  dearest  rights  and  privi- 
leges, and  who  with  tears  and  blood  laid  the  deep  founda- 
tions on  which  have  been  reared  the  fabric  of  our  liberties. 

Out  of  the  heart  of  Puritanism  Congregationalism  came. 
In  times  of  reform  men  go  to  different  lengths.  How  far 
a  man  will  go  depends  on  his  temper,  education,  insight, 
and  the  combination  of  his  faculties.     Some  men  by  the 

[236] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

momentum  of  hereditary  forces  must  be  radicals,  others 
must  be  conservatives.    The  men  of  the  sixteenth  century 
who  started  out  to  reform  the  church  stopped  at  different 
points.     There  were  four  revolts.     Each  one  more  radical 
than  the  one  which  preceded  it.    First  came  what  we  may 
call  the  Episcopal  revolt.     There  were  Englishmen  who 
were  devoted  to  the  English  church  and  who  loved  its 
polity  and  forms  of  administration  but  who  wished  to  purge 
it  of  its  corruptions  and  to  cut  it  loose  from  some  of  the 
usages  and  traditions  with  which  the  church  of  Rome  had 
bound  it.    These  men  clung  to  the  sacraments,  the  creeds, 
the  Episcopacy,  and  the  general  structure  of  an  estab- 
lished  national  church.     Freed   from   the   Pope  all   they 
asked  was  that  certain  features  of  the  Roman  parapher- 
nalia might  be  dispensed  with.    Bishop  Hooper,  sometimes 
called  the  Father  of  Puritanism,  may  stand  in  our  mind 
as  a  representative  of  this  class.    He  made  war  on  Romish 
ceremonies,  and  because  of  this  he  was  one  of  the  first  to 
be  burned  at  the  stake  by  Bloody  Mary. 

But  other  Englishmen  went  farther  than  Hooper  went. 
There  were  men  who  were  not  content  with  simply  cuttmg 
off  the  Pope;   they  insisted  that  the  Bishops  must  go  too. 
The  Bishops  had  for  centuries  been  tyrannical  in   their 
temper  and  had  claimed  and  exercised  prerogatives  which 
the  New  Testament  did  not  give  them.       There  was  no 
peace  or   freedom   for   the  church  of  Christ  — so  many 
Englishmen   felt  — unless   the   bishops  should   be   driven 
out  and  the  ecclesiastical  authority  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  body  of  presbyters,  part  of  them  clergymen  and  the 
other  part  laymen.     Here  we  come  to  a  fuller  recognition 
of  the  rights  of  laymen  than  the  church  had  known  since 
the  days  of  the  Apostles.     Christians    who  preferred  to 
be  ruled   by  presbyters  became  known  as  Presbyterians. 

[237] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

They  retained  the  sacraments  and  the  creeds,  and  like  the 
Episcopahans  were  stout  defenders  of  a  state  church. 
Thomas  Cartwright  may  stand  before  us  as  an  illustrious 
champion  of  the  Presbyterian  position. 

But  there  were  Englishmen  not  so  conservative  as  Thomas 
Cartwright.  They  were  afraid  of  ruling  Elders  no  less 
than  of  Bishops,  and  claimed  that  as  the  faith  was  once 
for  all  delivered  to  the  saints  so  also  ought  supreme  au- 
thority in  the  church  to  lie  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 
They  believed  that  presbyter  was  only  priest  writ  large, 
and  that  men  could  never  enjoy  the  freedom  wherewith 
Christ  had  made  them  free  until  every  congregation  of 
faithful  men  was  a  democracy  exercising  complete  control 
over  all  its  affairs.  This  meant  of  course  that  the  Act  of 
Supremacy  was  a  mistake,  for  Jesus  Christ  and  not  Eliza- 
beth was  the  head  of  the  church.  It  also  meant  that  the 
Act  of  Uniformity  was  a  usurpation,  for  every  congrega- 
tion of  faithful  men  had  a  right  to  worship  God  in  ways 
which  seemed  to  them  best.  These  radicals  were  known 
as  Separatists,  and  were  hated  of  all  men.  They  were 
feared  and  shunned  by  Romanists,  Episcopalians  and 
Presbyterians  alike,  as  traitors  to  their  country  and  ecclesi- 
astical anarchists  bent  on  shattering  the  church  of  God  to 
fragments.  Six  of  them  were  seized  and  hung  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  many  others  suffered  many  things 
at  the  hands  of  state  officials.  The  Episcopalians  had 
placed  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Bishops,  the  Presby- 
terians in  the  hands  of  the  Presbyters,  the  Separatists  in  the 
hands  of  the  People,  but  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  trust 
the  people  was  both  treason  and  blasphemy.  John  Robin- 
son was  one  of  the  bravest  and  brainiest  of  these  Separa- 
tists. He  was  the  pastor  of  the  church  a  portion  of  whose 
members  landed  at  last  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

[238] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

But  to  certain  Englishmen  John  Robinson  was  a  conser- 
vative. There  were  men  who  insisted  on  going  farther. 
The  Separatists  had  cast  off  Pope,  Bishop,  Presbyter,  and 
State  Church,  but  they  clung  to  the  sacraments  and  the 
clergy  and  the  creeds.  Why  should  not  these  also  be  cast 
off?  Why  not  make  Christianity  wholly  spiritual,  burning 
up  every  sign  and  symbol  which  could  suggest  to  the 
mind  the  ancient  tyranny  and  the  age-long  corruption? 
God's  voice  in  the  soul  of  man,  this,  so  these  men  asserted, 
is  enough,  and  anything  beyond  this  is  both  unscriptural 
and  dangerous.  These  radicals  became  known  as  Quakers, 
and  George  Fox  stands  in  history  as  their  father. 

Here  then  we  reach  the  extreme  limits  of  the  Puritan 
movement.  Beyond  this  it  was  not  possible  to  go.  One 
set  of  men  threw  off  the  Pope,  the  second  set  threw  off  the 
Bishops,  the  third  set  threw  off  the  Presbyters,  the  fourth 
set  threw  off  the  clergy,  sacraments  and  creeds.  And  thus 
the  splendid  Roman  Catholic  Church  with  her  awe-in- 
spiring hierarchy  and  her  elaborate  and  magnificent  cere- 
monials stands  at  one  extreme,  while  at  the  other  extreme 
we  have  only  a  little  company  of  plainly  dressed,  earnest 
faced  people  waiting  in  silence  for  the  movement  of  God's 
spirit.  Roman  Catholics  and  Quakers  are  separated  from 
one  another  by  the  entire  diameter  of  Christian  thought. 
Under  the  influence  of  Rome  the  church  of  the  carpenter 
of  Nazareth  was  arrayed  in  gorgeous  and  multitudinous 
robes.  One  robe  after  another  was  torn  from  her  by  the 
hands  of  devoted  reformers  until  at  last,  without  clergy, 
sacrament,  or  creed,  she  stood  naked,  listening  not  to 
Parliament  or  council,  Pope  or  King,  but  to  Him  who  al- 
though not  seen  is  loved. 

But  it  is  the  Separatists  with  whom  we  are  just  now 
concerned.    They  did  not  agree  among  themselves  and  di- 

[  239] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

vided  into  two  bands,  the  first  calling  themselves  Baptists, 
the  second  becoming  known  as  Independents.  These  In- 
dependents on  reaching  the  new  world  became  known  later 
on  as  Congregationalists.  The  Baptists  and  Independents 
agreed  on  all  points  save  two,  the  mode  of  baptism  and  the 
proper  subjects  of  baptism.  To  the  Independents  the  form 
of  baptism  was  not  essential,  various  forms  having  been 
used  in  Bible  times,  and  therefore  any  one  of  these  is  valid. 
To  the  Baptists  there  was  no  valid  baptism  unless  the 
entire  body  was  submerged.  The  Independents,  following 
the  unbroken  tradition  and  practice  of  the  entire  church 
for  over  a  thousand  years,  claimed  that  children  of  Chris- 
tian parents  are  proper  subjects  for  baptism,  whereas  the 
Baptists  limited  this  sacrament  to  those  who  were  able  to 
make  a  personal  confession  of  faith  in  Christ.  But  in  their 
general  conceptions  of  church  polity,  and  in  their  root 
ideas  of  God  and  Christian  privileges  and  freedom,  the 
Baptists  and  Congregationalists  have  ever  been  at  one. 
All  Baptists  in  church  government  and  administration  are 
Congregationalists,  that  is,  they  agree  with  us  in  vesting 
final  authority  neither  in  ofiftcials  nor  in  councils,  but  in  the 
hands  of  the  local  congregation  of  believers. 

What  is  the  root  idea  of  Congregationalism?  The  right  of 
every  Christian  to  immediate  access  to  the  throne  of  God. 
Out  of  this  basal  idea  everything  else  flows.  Unless  this 
first  truth  is  admitted,  then  everything  else  in  Congregation- 
alism is  without  defense.  From  the  days  of  Robinson  down- 
ward we  have  steadfastly  believed  in  the  priesthood  of 
believers.  Every  believer  is  a  priest  and  has  the  right  to 
enter  the  holy  of  holies  and  commune  with  the  Eternal. 
To  every  seeking  child  of  God  is  given  directly  wisdom, 
guidance,  power.  This  was  vehemently  denied  by  the 
Church  of  Rome.     Her  teaching  was  that  souls  must  come 

[  240  1 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

to  God  through  the  church.  By  the  church  was  meant 
priest,  Bishop,  Cardinal  and  Pope.  Outside  the  church 
there  was  no  salvation.  Through  the  clergy  and  through 
the  clergy  alone  came  absolution,  guidance,  favor  with 
God.  Our  forefathers  brushed  aside  with  one  magnificent 
sweep  the  whole  hierarchy  from  bottom  to  top,  saying: 
"  We  are  all  priests  unto  God,  and  each  one  of  us  must 
stand  for  himself  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ." 

After  Henry  VIII  freed  England  from  the  yoke  of  Rome 
the  English  government  attempted  to  usurp  the  place 
which  the  Roman  hierarchy  had  filled.  King  and  Parlia- 
ment claimed  the  right  not  only  to  select  church  officials, 
but  also  to  determine  the  forms  of  worship.  The  tyranny 
of  Rome  was  superseded  by  the  tyranny  of  Canterbury  and 
Whitehall,  and  our  forefathers  rose  in  swift  and  determined 
rebellion.  Elizabeth  claimed  the  right  to  say  by  what 
forms  all  her  subjects  should  worship  God,  and  this  right 
the  Separatists  denied.  She  hung  a  few  of  them  and  im- 
prisoned many,  but  conquered  none.  James  I  with  more 
pomp  than  wisdom  declared  that  he  would  compel  these 
men  to  conform  to  his  church  laws  or  he  would  harry  them 
out  of  the  land.  It  was  to  escape  his  wrath  that  the  Pil- 
grims fled  into  Holland.  Charles  I  was  still  more  despotic 
than  his  father.  Finding  Parliament  unwilling  to  be 
his  tool,  he  ruled  for  eleven  years  without  a  Parliament. 
Throu^  a  large  part  of  this  period  William  Laud  was 
practically  head  of  the  English  church,  and  so  merciless 
were  his  measures  to  bring  non-conforming  Christians  into 
subjection  that  within  these  eleven  years  twenty  thou- 
sand English  Puritans  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  make  their 
home  in  New  England.  These  men  were  determined  that 
no  one  —  be  he  even  Pope  or  King  —  should  stand  between 
the  soul  and  God. 

[  241  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

But  if  it  be  true  that  every  Christian  has  a  right  to  go 
straight  to  God  and  is  capable  of  receiving  from  him  wis- 
dom in  every  time  of  need,  then  upon  the  shoulders  of  every 
Christian  is  rolled  a  burden  of  responsibility.  If  the 
Christian  has  rights  he  also  has  duties.  If  he  has  privi- 
leges he  also  has  obligations.  If  he  can  become  a  partaker 
of  the  divine  life  then  he  may  be  safely  trusted.  He  may 
be  relied  on  to  take  a  share  in  conducting  God's  business 
on  earth.  He  may  be  entrusted  with  church  administration. 
In  other  words  a  company  of  Christian  believers,  every 
one  of  whom  has  immediate  access  to  the  mind  and  heart 
of  Christ,  can  be  trusted  to  manage  their  own  church  affairs 
without  interference  from  Bishop  or  Pope,  Council  or  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  If  Christ  is  present  wherever  two  or  three 
are  assembled  together  in  his  name,  then  his  cause  will  not 
suffer  if  left  entirely  to  those  among  whom  he  dwells.  The 
congregation  of  believers  has  the  right  to  rule,  and  Christ 
alone  is  head.  It  is  for  this  reason  we  are  called  Congrega- 
tionalists:  we  believe  that  the  congregation,  rather  than  the 
Presbyters,  or  the  Bishops,  or  the  Pope,  can  be  trusted  to 
decide  what  it  ought  to  do.  A  church  must  have  a  form  of 
worship.  Who  shall  decide  what  it  shall  be?  We  say  let 
the  congregation  decide  it.  Why  not?  Who  shall  write 
the  confession  of  faith?  Let  the  members  of  the  church 
do  it.  They  are  instructed  of  Christ.  Who  shall  choose 
the  minister,  and  the  other  church  officials?  The  con- 
gregation certainly.  Who  shall  determine  who  shall  be  ad- 
mitted into  the  church,  and  who  shall  be  cast  out  as  un- 
worthy, and  what  shall  be  the  methods  of  church  activity? 
Why  not  let  the  people  decide  all  these  questions!  If 
every  Christian  can  go  straight  to  God  who  gives  liberally 
and  upbraids  not,  surely  a  company  of  faithful  men  may 
be  trusted  to  carry  on  church  life  and  work  to  the  glory  of 

[  242  ] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

God.  Trust  the  people,  that  is  our  message  to  the  world. 
We  are  ecclesiastical  democrats.  We  believe  in  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  That  is 
our  platform  in  politics,  that  is  our  creed  in  religion.  The 
people  may  make  mistakes,  but  their  blunders  will  not  be 
more  numerous  nor  fatal  than  those  made  by  selected 
bodies  of  church  officials,  or  by  national  or  international 
assemblies.  This  then  is  Congregationalism:  the  right 
of  every  local  body  of  believers  to  fix  their  own  forms  of 
worship,  to  phrase  .their  own  creed,  to  choose  their  own 
officers,  and  to  administer  without  outside  check  or  inter- 
ference their  own  church  affairs. 

It  is  in  this  local  independence  that  we  differ  from  the 
other  branches  of  the  Christian  church.  The  Episcopal 
church  believes  in  uniformity  of  worship.  That  idea  is  an 
inheritance  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth  which  it  has  never 
been  willing  to  cast  off.  Every  Episcopal  church  through- 
out the  country  must  accept  at  the  hands  of  the  General 
Council  a  prescribed  form  of  worship  and  this  must  not  be 
departed  from  by  any  congregation  in  the  entire  Episcopal 
communion. 

We  Congregationalists  do  not  believe  in  binding  men  so. 
Human  beings  differ  in  temperament  and  taste,  in  apti- 
tudes and  culture,  and  forms  which  are  edifying  to  one 
company  of  Christians  are  only  wearisome  to  others.  We 
Congregationalists  say  let  every  congregation  worship  in 
the  way  which  best  satisfies  its  needs  and  promotes  its 
growth  in  holiness.  The  little  congregation  in  a  mining 
town  in  the  shadow  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  might  not 
want  a  service  like  the  one  we  have  in  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle, and  we  might  not  care  for  the  one  most  helpful  to 
our  distant  Western  friends.  Let  the  Tabernacle  worship 
in  its  own  way,  and  let  the  little  Western  town  direct  its 

[  243  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

worship  as  it  chooses,  and  let  neither  body  of  believers 
tyrannize  in  these  matters  over  the  other,  for  Christ  has 
made  us  free.    That  is  Congregationalism. 

From  the  Presbyterians  we  differ  in  our  government. 
The  Presbytery,  Synod  and  General  Assembly  are  councils 
with  judicial  powers:  the  councils  of  Congregationalism 
have  advisory  functions  only.  What  the  General  Assembly 
decrees  all  loyal  Presbyterians  must  obey:  what  our 
national  council  advises  all  good  Congregationalists  will 
do,  so  far  as  the  advice  commends  itself  to  their  best  judg- 
ment. Under  one  form  of  government  the  restrictions  are 
external  and  legal,  under  the  other  the  compulsions  are 
interior  and  spiritual.  By  the  action  of  the  General 
Assembly  one  creed  is  binding  on  all  Presbyterian  preachers 
and  churches:  Congregational  churches  phrase  their  own 
creeds,  each  church  for  itself.  The  present  creed  of  the 
Presbyterians  is  an  inheritance  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
In  the  judgment  of  many  Presbyterian  leaders  this  creed  is 
antiquated  and  in  certain  parts  unchristian  and  false.  But 
no  matter  how  widely  thousands  of  Presbyterians  may  dis- 
sent from  their  creed  and  how  vigorously  individual  leaders 
may  attack  it,  it  remains  the  authorized  confession  of  faith 
of  all  Presbyterian  clergymen  and  churches  until  the 
General  Assembly  has  modified  it  or  cast  it  away.  No 
Congregational  church  can  be  obliged  to  subscribe  to  any 
creed  which  is  not  acceptable  to  the  majority  of  its  members. 

From  the  Methodists  we  differ  in  our  freedom  in  the 
choice  of  ministers.  According  to  the  theory  of  Methodism, 
pastors  are  chosen  by  the  Bishop,  and  the  appointment  of 
the  Bishop  is  final.  The  members  of  the  church  may 
vigorously  protest  and  the  preacher  himself  may  be  reluc- 
tant to  go,  but  if  all  are  loyal  Methodists  they  will  abide 
by  the  decision  of  the  Bishop  no  matter  what  it  may  be. 

[244] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

Congregationalism  submits  to  no  such  bondage.  We 
believe  that  the  members  of  a  church  know  better  than 
any  outside  officials  what  man  can  most  acceptably  meet 
their  needs,  and  build  them  up  in  righteousness.  No  man 
can  become  the  pastor  of  any  Congregational  church  with- 
out receiving  a  majority  vote  of  all  the  members  who  care 
to  express  their  preferences  in  choosing  a  leader. 

From  the  Catholics  we  differ  at  almost  every  point. 
With  them  the  hierarchy  is  supreme,  with  us  the  people. 
It  is  the  Catholic  clergy  who  determine  the  entire  policy 
of  the  church  and  fix  every  detail  in  its  administration: 
in  a  Congregational  church  nothing  of  moment  is  done 
without  the  consent  of  the  laity.  According  to  the  Roman 
idea  the  clergy  constitute  the  church:  according  to  the 
Congregational  idea  the  church  is  made  up  of  the  Lord's 
followers. 

What  then  has  been  the  mission  of  Congregationalism? 
It  has  taught  the  world  new  lessons  in  freedom.  It  has 
demonstrated  that  the  people  may  be  trusted.  By  admit- 
ting laymen  into  new  liberty  it  has  developed  the  sense  of 
individual  responsibility  and  produced  a  body  of  Christian 
people  who  have  profoundly  influenced  the  temper  and 
methods  of  the  entire  Christian  world.  There  is  not  a 
denomination  which  does  not  bear  on  it  the  marks  of  our 
influence.  We  have  radiated  the  spirit  of  liberty  into  every 
branch  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  new  world.  The 
Roman  Catholic  church  in  the  United  States  is  widely 
different  in  temper  and  ideals  from  the  same  church  in  any 
other  land.  Catholic  laymen  have  in  many  instances 
rebelled  against  the  tyranny  of  their  ecclesiastical  superiors, 
manifesting  an  independence  and  determination  to  secure 
their  rights  which  remind  one  of  the  spirit  which  has  from 
the    beginning  dominated   our    Congregational    churches. 

[  245  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

We  have  above  all  others  contributed  to  the  creation  of 
that  atmosphere  of  democracy  under  whose  continuous 
and  irresistible  influence  all  American  institutions  have 
taken  their  present  shape.  Because  of  the  strength  and 
independence  of  our  leaders  we  have  been  able  to  be  the 
advance  guard  in  many  a  noble  cause.  In  the  great  work 
of  education  we  have  always  been  in  the  forefront.  We 
founded  the  first  college  established  in  the  new  world,  and 
planted  the  idea  out  of  which  our  public  school  system  has 
developed.  If  men  are  to  be  trusted  they  must  be  edu- 
cated. To  those  who  rule  in  state  and  church  knowledge 
is  indispensable.  Bowdoin  and  Dartmouth,  Amherst  and 
Williams,  Harvard  and  Yale  —  all  founded  by  Congrega- 
tionalists  —  are  witnesses  to  our  unfaltering  belief  that 
neither  state  nor  church  is  secure  unless  the  people  have 
knowledge.  Streams  of  influence  have  flowed  from  these 
New  England  colleges  across  the  land,  causing  colleges  and 
academies  and  schools  to  spring  up,  helping  to  shape 
the  life  of  communities  and  to  fix  the  temper  and  ideals  of 
our  civilization.  First  in  education,  we  were  first  also  in 
the  work  of  home  and  foreign  missions.  We  sent  the  first 
Christian  workers  among  the  Indians,  and  organized  the 
first  American  society  to  carry  the  gospel  to  foreign  lands. 
We  are  the  light  brigade  in  the  Lord's  great  army,  and  can 
dash  ahead  and  seize  strategic  points  and  hold  them  until 
the  heavier  battalions  come  up.  We  did  this  in  the  days 
of  slavery.  We  pushed  our  work  into  the  South  and  while 
other  churches  held  aloof  we  preached  the  rights  of  black 
men  under  the  eaves  of  southern  meeting  houses  in  which 
the  worshipers  had  forgotten  that  a  negro  was  the  child 
of  God.  Our  freedom  gives  us  room  to  act  and  that  at 
once.  While  Radicals  and  Conservatives  in  the  national 
councils  of  the  other  branches  of  the  church  wrestle  with 

[246] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

one  another,  the  latter  constantly  holding  the  former 
back  from  attempted  reformations,  we  are  free  to  plunge 
at  once  into  whatever  great  work  the  Lord  assigns,  and 
can  keep  abreast  of  the  most  advanced  thought  and  most 
efficient  methods  of  the  times.  If  any  Congregational 
church  is  ever  a  laggard  in  the  day  of  progress  or  ever  a 
recreant  to  present  duty,  it  is  not  because  it  is  handicapped 
by  denominational  machinery,  but  because  its  pastor  and 
members  are  blind  to  opportunity  and  unwilling  to  come 
to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty. 

But  we  have  given  more  than  our  spirit  to  our  sister 
denominations.  We  have  assisted  them  in  their  work  by 
lavish  contributions  of  men  and  money.  Many  of  the 
giants  of  Presbyterianism  were  born  in  Congregational 
homes,  and  Episcopacy  owes  not  a  little  of  its  strength  to 
the  men  whose  torches  were  lit  at  our  fires.  The  greatest 
Episcopal  preacher  which  America  has  produced  was 
given  to  that  denomination  by  a  Congregationalist  mother, 
and  the  successor  of  Bishop  Brooks  was  reared  and  trained 
within  our  denominational  fold.  Run  through  the  churches 
of  the  metropolis,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  what  a 
large  proportion  of  the  effective  preachers,  and  the  faithful 
and  influential  laymen,  have  on  them  the  marks  either  of 
Congregational  ancestry  or  Congregational  training.  Our 
polity  has  produced  a  type  of  Christian  which  is  prized  and 
utilized  in  every  branch  of  the  Christian  church.  Of  our 
money  we  have  given  so  freely  to  outside  causes  that  our 
own  enterprises  have  often  been  crippled  by  deficits  result- 
ing from  our  indiscriminate  generosity. 

If  we  have  given  we  also  have  received  both  in  brain  and 
treasure  from  every  branch  of  the  Christian  church.  We 
have  not  lived  alone,  nor  have  we  worked  alone.  What- 
ever is  excellent  in  the  methods  and  labors  of  other  Chris- 

[247] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

tians  we  claim  the  privilege  of  using.  All  things  are  ours 
because  we  belong  to  Christ.  As  a  branch  of  the  universal 
church  we  prize  and  use  whatever  treasures  have  been 
given  to  preceding  generations.  Everything  that  belongs 
to  Christianity  belongs  to  us,  and  from  every  branch  of 
Christendom  we  have  taken  ideas  and  interpretations 
which  have  enriched  our  denominational  life.  To  the 
Presbyterians  we  have  been  bound  by  ties  especially  close 
and  tender,  freely  exchanging  ministers  and  laymen,  and 
for  many  years  working  together  in  home  and  foreign 
missionary  labors. 

Indeed  our  hospitality  to  all  members  of  the  great  house- 
hold of  faith  and  our  willingness  to  cooperate  with  all  who 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  have  been  our  crowning 
characteristics.  We  are  not  sectarian  nor  exclusive.  We 
dwell  more  upon  the  points  on  which  we  agree  with  our 
neighbors  than  upon  the  points  on  which  we  differ.  So 
seldom  do  our  ministers  preach  on  Congregationalism  that 
thousands  of  our  people  do  not  know  our  history  and  cannot 
state  the  distinguishing  principles  of  our  denominational 
life.  So  slight  is  the  emphasis  placed  on  denominational 
loyalty  that  our  members  on  moving  from  one  locality  to 
another  pass  readily  into  whatever  communion  happens 
to  be  nearest  to  them.  Congregationalists  above  all  others 
are  sought  after  by  those  soliciting  money  for  needy  causes, 
so  great  is  their  reputation  for  willingness  to  help  what- 
ever movement  promises  to  advance  the  Kingdom  of  our 
Lord.  We  have  no  quarrels  with  anybody.  Claiming  the 
right  to  worship  God  in  our  own  way,  and  to  do  our  work 
as  seemeth  to  us  best,  we  give  to  every  body  of  Christians 
the  rights  which  we  claim  for  ourselves.  If  some  Christians 
prefer  incense  and  candles,  let  them  have  them;  if  others 
like  an  elaborate  liturgy,  let  them  enjoy  it;  if  others  like 

[  248  ] 


CONGREGATIONALISM 

Bishops  or  Presbyters,  or  Presiding  Elders,  or  baptism  by 
immersion  only,  it  is  their  privilege  to  have  what  they 
desire.  We  deny  to  no  man  the  freedom  with  which  Christ 
has  set  us  free.  We  are  willing  to  cooperate  with  all  branches 
of  the  church  so  far  as  they  will  let  us.  We  strive  to  live 
at  peace  with  all  our  neighbors.  While  we  do  not  believe 
in  the  uniformity  of  the  church,  we  do  believe  most  heartily 
in  its  unity,  and  our  constant  aim  is  to  keep  the  unity  of  the 
spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  With  all  true  Christians  every- 
where we  join  with  Christ  in  his  high  priestly  prayer  that 
all  his  followers  may  be  one.  The  Broadway  Tabernacle 
is  a  Congregational  church,  but  she  does  not  parade  her 
denominational  name  .in  her  legal  title.  She  is  true  to  the 
best  spirit  and  tradition  of  our  denominational  history 
when  she  writes  as  the  first  article  in  her  creed  these  catholic 
and  fraternal  words: 

"  As  a  church  of  Christ,  associated  in  accordance  with 
the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  for  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God,  for  the  observance  of  gospel  sacraments  and 
ordinances,  for  mutual  edification  and  encouragement  in 
the  Christian  life,  and  for  the  advancement  of  the  Re- 
deemer's kingdom,  we  declare  our  union  in  faith  and  love 
with  all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 


[249] 


XIV 

THE  CONTRIBUTION  OF  CONGREGATIONALISM 
TO   EDUCATION^ 

"Remember  the  days  of  old,  consider  the  years  of  many  generations.'*  — 
Deut.  32  :  7. 

It  would  not  be  possible  for  me  to  allow  this  day  to  pass 
without  reminding  you  that  it  is  the  anniversary  of  one 
of  the  cardinal  events  in  human  history.  No  phenomenon 
of  the  Christian  centuries  is  more  deserving  of  our  earnest 
study  than  the  Puritan  movement  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  and  in  all  that  mighty  movement 
of  thought  and  action  no  event  is  of  deeper  or  more  lasting 
significance  than  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth 
Rock  two  hundred  and  eighty- two  years  ago. 

We  Americans,  I  fear,  do  not  deal  seriously  enough  with 
the  past.  The  present  is  so  fascinating  and  so  absorbing 
we  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  inclination  to  give  our- 
selves to  the  men  who  have  lived  and  the  years  that  have 
been.  And  that  is  a  pity.  To  neglect  the  past  is  to  im- 
poverish and  weaken  our  life.  We  are  not  isolated  creatures, 
unrelated  to  yesterday;  we  are  members  of  a  vast  society, 
cells  in  a  complex  organism,  our  blood  carries  impulses  and 
instincts  formed  by  the  experiences  of  a  thousand  genera- 
tions. The  forces  which  drive  the  ship  on  which  our  fortunes 
are  embarked  blow  like  winds  out  of  the  vast  cave  of  the 
Past.  The  swell  of  the  sea  over  which  we  glide  is  due  to 
convulsions  which  took  place  generations  ago.  Our  world 
was  built  up  bit  by  bit  by  men  and  women  who  vanished 

1  Dec.  21,  1902. 

[  250  ] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

from  the  scene  of  their  labors  before  we  came  upon  the 
stage.  Our  atmosphere,  intellectual,  social,  political,  relig- 
ious, is  the  creation  of  men  whose  hands  have  vanished  and 
whose  voices  are  still.  How  then  can  a  man  appreciate  his 
age  unless  he  knows  the  ages  of  which  his  age  is  the  latest 
born  child?  How  can  he  interpret  his  times  unless  he  under- 
stands the  times  out  of  which  the  present  world  has  been 
evolved?  Our  distinguished  fellow  townsman,  Mr.  How- 
ells,  has  of  late  been  giving  advice  to  young  women  in  re- 
gard to  books  and  reading.  Although  a  novelist  himself, 
he  places  fiction  last  and  history  first.  Young  women,  he 
says,  should  read  history  for  perspective.  And  this  advice 
is  good  for  men  also,  both  young  and  old.  Without  true 
perspective  we  cannot  place  correct  valuations  on  either 
characters  or  events,  nor  can  we  measure  the  relative  im- 
portance of  the  forces  combining  to  create  the  dangers  and 
the  problems  of  our  modern  world.  How  can  we  under- 
stand the  industrial  crisis  which  is  on  us  if  we  are  not  fa- 
miliar with  the  world's  history  since  the  days  of  the  French 
Revolution?  And  how  can  we  correctly  interpret  the  life 
and  duty  of  the  Christian  church  unless  we  have  mastered 
church  history  from  Reformation  times  down  to  our  own? 
Thus  to  the  superficial  and  uninformed  observer  denomi- 
nationalism  is  a  hopeless  enigma  or  a  rock  of  offence.  That 
the  Christian  church  should  exist  under  different  forms  of 
government  and  with  divers  types  of  worship  seems  to 
him  fresh  evidence  of  the  enormous  range  of  human  folly, 
and  of  the  constant  activity  of  the  devil.  '*  Why,"  he 
exclaims  impatiently,  ''  should  there  not  be  one  church, 
with  one  worship,  one  creed,  one  head?  "  But  to  one  who 
looks  more  deeply  into  the  universe  which  is  our  home,  it 
is  no  surprise  that  the  Christian  church  should  exist  in 
many  branches.  God  does  indeed  love  unity,  but  he  seems 

[251] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

to  love  it  in  variety.  There  is  a  unity  in  every  landscape, 
but  hill  and  valley,  shrub  and  tree,  moss  and  flower,  rock 
and  brook  are  some  of  the  many  forms  which  nature  chooses 
by  which  to  express  her  loveliness.  Humanity  is  one,  but 
God  breaks  it  into  races,  giving  to  each  race  a  specific  work 
to  do.  He  has  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations,  but  how 
widely  they  differ  from  one  another!  The  same  race  be- 
comes a  different  thing  under  different  skies,  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  preferring  one  form  of  government  in  England, 
another  in  Canada,  another  in  the  United  States,  and  still 
another  in  Australia.  Why  should  it  be  surprising  if  the 
Church  of  God,  like  a  mighty  tree  whose  leaves  are  to  be 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  should  throw  out  many 
branches,  each  branch  producing  a  special  variety  of  fruit? 
Or  if  the  church  of  Christ  is  indeed  an  army,  why  should  it 
not  like  other  armies  be  organized  into  regiments,  brigades, 
divisions,  and  corps,  all  of  them  under  the  leadership  of 
the  Captain  of  the  world's  salvation?  And  just  as  in  an 
army  efficiency  is  promoted  and  courage  is  increased  by 
each  regiment  developing  among  its  men  an  esprit  de  corps, 
by  the  treasuring  of  its  memories,  by  the  hallowing  of  its 
traditions,  by  the  recital  now  and  then  of  the  experiences 
through  which  it  has  come  with  tattered  flag  and  broken 
bayonet  and  garments  rolled  in  blood,  so  it  is  a  good  and 
wholesome  and  Christian  thing  for  each  regiment  in  the 
Lord's  army  to  preserve  and  hallow  its  traditions,  to  re- 
count occasionally  the  battles  in  which  it  has  played  a 
part,  and  to  ponder  the  significance  of  the  miracles  of  grace 
which  Christ  through  it  has  wrought  in  the  history  of  his 
church.  That  we  may  be  stronger  Christians  and  more 
forceful  men,  let  us  think  this  morning  about  the  contribu- 
tion which  that  branch  of  the  Christian  church  to  which 
we  belong  has  made  to  the  cause  of  education. 

[  252  ] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

The  Puritan  flood  reached  the  shores  of  the  new  world 
in  two  streams.  The  first  and  smaller  stream  came  by  way 
of  Holland  and  struck  the  coast  of  New  England  at  Plym- 
outh in  1620.  The  Mayflower  brought  102  passengers, 
the  Fortune  35,  the  Anne  and  the  Little  James  96,  making 
a  total  of  233,  an  immortal  company  to  be  known  forever 
as  the  **  Pilgrim  Fathers."  But  the  colony  which  these 
men  founded  grew  but  slowly.  At  the  end  of  seven  years 
Plymouth  had  only  267  souls,  at  the  end  of  twenty-five 
years  only  about  3,000.  The  ''  Old  Colony  "  did  not  pro- 
duce a  great  preacher,  a  famous  scholar,  or  an  influential 
statesman.  It  never  planted  a  college.  Not  even  a  public 
school  was  established  in  Plymouth  during  the  first  half 
century  of  her  history. 

The  fame  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  rests  not  on  what  they 
themselves  achieved  but  what  they  led  to.  These  men 
were  stepping-stones  for  others.  As  Bradford  put  it,  "  Out 
of  small  beginnings  great  things  have  been  produced,  and 
as  one  small  candle  may  light  a  thousand,  so  the  light  here 
kindled  hath  shone  to  many,  yea,  in  some  sort,  to  our  whole 
nation."  The  fire  they  kindled  at  Plymouth  made  it 
easier  for  other  Puritans  to  cioss  the  Atlantic.  In  1628 
John  Endicott  came  with  a  company  of  60,  the  following 
year  Francis  Higginson  arrived  with  a  company  of  400,  in 
1630  John  Winthrop  came,  and  with  him  1,000  others.  In 
twelve  years  20,000  came  and  then  the  flood  of  immigra- 
tion ceased.  Among  these  twenty  thousand  Englishmen 
an  unusual  proportion  were  clergymen,  and  most  of  these 
were  men  of  university  training.  Fully  three-fourths  of 
the  university  men  were  from  Cambridge.  Among  these 
men  were  John  Cotton,  a  "  walking  library,"  according  to 
his  learned  biographer,  and  Richard  Mather,  father  of  a 
president  of  Harvard  College,  and  grandfather  of  one  of 

[  253  ] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

the  most  learned  men  of  his  day,  and  Thomas  Shepard, 
the  friend  of  Cromwell  and  Milton,  and  John  Davenport, 
one  of  the  three  Americans  invited  to  sit  in  the  West- 
minster Assembly,  and  John  Eliot,  the  first  man  to  put 
the  Bible  into  the  Indian  language,  and  John  Norton,  the 
author  of  the  first  Latin  book  produced  in  Massachusetts, 
and  Thomas  Hooker,  whom  Cotton  Mather  and  others 
have  called  "  the  incomparable,"  and  who  was  foreordained 
to  become  the  author  of  "  the  first  written  constitution 
known  to  history,  that  created  a  government."  With  such 
leaders  we  are  not  surprised  to  read  that  a  school  was  es- 
tablished in  1635,  and  that  a  college  was  founded  in  1636. 
Two  years  later  a  young  minister  —  John  Harvard  —  about 
to  die,  left  to  the  college  one-half  of  his  estate  and  his 
entire  library  consisting  of  260  books,  and  from  him  the 
college  took  its  name.  The  founding  of  Harvard  College 
was  an  event  the  glory  of  which  will  never  fade.  Historians 
have  loved  to  dwell  upon  the  heroism  of  the  little  com- 
munity which  at  the  very  beginning  of  its  life,  torn  by 
dissensions  within  and  beset  by  dangers  on  every  side,  was 
willing  to  set  aside  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  the  entire 
taxation  of  the  colony  for  the  support  of  an  institution  of 
learning.  Before  these  men  had  built  their  own  homes  or 
had  made  the  necessary  bridges  and  roads,  their  minds 
turned  to  the  education  of  the  young  men  who  were  to  take 
their  places  after  they  themselves  had  passed  on.  Hostile 
Indians  in  their  rear  and  a  threatening  government  beyond 
the  ocean  had  no  such  terror  for  them  as  did  the  fear  that  the 
church  of  God  might  be  left  without  an  educated  ministry. 
Knowing  that  ignorance  is  the  mother  of  superstition,  they 
were  ready  to  make  every  sacrifice  necessary  to  establish 
in  their  midst  a  college  which  should  do  for  the  new  world 
what  Oxford  and  Cambridge  had  done  for  the  old.     It  was 

I  254] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

not  the  first  time  in  history  that  a  people  by  their  represen- 
tatives had  founded  a  place  of  education,  but  never  before 
had  men  so  circumstanced  as  these  given  so  generously  of 
their  substance  for  the  maintenance  of  an  institution  in 
which  their  children  might  pursue  the  courses  of  the  higher 
learning.  The  story  of  the  first  hundred  years  of  Harvard's 
struggles  is  most  fascinating.  It  was  no  easy  thing  for  a 
college  to  live  through  those  troubled  and  almost  desperate 
times.  Had  it  not  been  for  constant  sacrifice  and  patience 
the  feeble  school  would  have  surely  died.  It  was  supported 
in  large  measure  by  the  free  offerings  of  the  people.  One 
man  gave  a  sheep,  another  a  piece  of  cotton  cloth,  another 
a  silver  spoon,  another  a  fruit  dish,  sacred  heirlooms 
which  had  been  rescued  from  the  homeland  and  borne 
through  the  storms  of  the  sea,  but  which  though  precious 
in  the  eyes  of  their  owners  were  cheerfully  surrendered  that 
the  college  might  survive.  From  year  to  year  collections 
were  taken  among  the  farmers  of  Connecticut,  for  they  too 
could  send  their  sons  to  Cambridge  and  reap  the  blessings 
which  learning  has  to  give.  For  fifty-seven  years  Har- 
vard was  the  only  college  in  America.  Not  till  1693  did 
the  Episcopalians  of  Virginia,  after  a  series  of  disappoint- 
ments and  delays  which  would  have  vanquished  the  hearts 
of  less  heroic  men,  succeed  in  establishing  a  college  to  which 
was  given  the  name,  William  and  Mary. 

Of  the  twenty-three  colleges  founded  in  the  eighteenth 
century  five  were  established  by  Congregationalists.  The 
first  of  these  both  in  time  and  in  importance  was  Yale, 
the  year  of  its  birth  being  the  opening  year  of  the  century 
1701.  John  Davenport  had  dreamed  of  such  an  institu- 
tion for  the  young  men  of  Connecticut,  but  he  had  died 
with  his  dream  unfulfilled,  bequeathing  it  to  a  generation 
which  was  able  to  give  it  a  local  habitation  and  a  name. 

[255] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

Like  Harvard,  Yale  was  conceived  in  the  heart  of  a 
Congregational  minister  and  it  was  Congregational  minis- 
ters who  laid  the  foundations  of  its  greatness.  The  ten 
ministers,  all  but  one  graduates  of  Harvard,  who  met  at 
Branford  in  the  closing  year  of  the  seventeenth  centufy 
and  who  made  a  contribution  of  forty  volumes  from  their 
library  ''  for  the  founding  of  a  college,"  were  weak  in  re- 
sources but  mighty  in  their  faith.  From  the  day  when 
the  legislature  granted  a  charter  vesting  the  governing 
power  in  the  hands  of  ten  Congregational  ministers  down 
to  the  present  time,  the  majority  of  the  governing  body  of 
Yale  University  have  been  Congregational  ministers,  and 
with  the  exception  of  President  Hadley  all  the  Presidents 
have  been  Congregational  ministers,  too.  Yale  began  with 
a  single  student  and  in  two  hundred  years  the  one  has  be- 
come three  thousand.    The  acorn  has  grown  into  an  oak. 

One  of  the  many  men  whose  hearts  were  kindled  by  the 
great  revival  of  George  Whitefield  was  Eleazer  Wheelock. 
In  1754  he  opened  a  school  for  Indians  in  the  northern 
extremity  of  old  Lebanon  in  Connecticut,  and  this  school, 
carried  into  New  Hampshire,  was  enlarged  and  opened  in 
1770  under  the  name  of  Dartmouth  College.  Its  first 
President,  Dr.  Wheelock,  was  a  Congregational  minister, 
as  have  been  all  its  other  presidents  but  one.  The  Col- 
lege of  Vermont  was  founded  in  1791,  Williams  College 
in  1793,  and  Middlebury  in  1800,  all  three  through  the 
enthusiasm  and  energy  of  Congregational  ministers  and 
laymen. 

But  the  time  would  fail  if  I  should  attempt  to  tell  you 
of  Bowdoin  (founded  in  1802)  with  its  line  of  distinguished 
presidents,  all  of  them  Congregational  ministers;  of  Am- 
herst (founded  in  1821)  and  the  stream  of  men  who  have 
left  her  halls  to  teach  and  inspire  and  bless  the  world;   of 

[256] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

Mt.  Holyoke  (founded  in  1837),  and  its  heroic  founder 
Mary  Lyon,  who  at  a  time  when  the  world  did  not  yet 
beheve  in  the  higher  education  of  women  dared  to  stand 
for  principles  which  are  now  the  commonplaces  of  our 
civilization,  and  left  an  impress  on  the  spirit  of  her  school 
which  the  years  have  not  effaced ;  •  of  Wellesley  (founded  in 
1875),  and  the  generous  Congregational  layman,  Henry  F. 
Durant,  who  made  the  village  of  college  buildings  on  the 
shores  of  lovely  Waban  possible;  of  Smith  (founded  in 
1875),  and  the  consecrated  Congregational  woman,  Sophia 
Smith,  who  by  her  generosity  called  into  existence  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  existing  colleges  for  girls.  These  are  the 
works  of  our  hands  in  New  England.  None  of  these  schools 
are  in  the  strictest  sense  denominational.  When  their  names 
are  mentioned  no  one  thinks  of  connecting  them  with  any 
particular  branch  of  the  Christian  church.  Harvard  swung 
away  from  Congregational  authority  a  century  ago,  and 
the  University  of  Vermont  has  never  been  a  Congrega- 
tional institution.  In  none  of  them  are  the  principles  of 
our  denominational  life  expounded  or  enforced.  They 
are  simply  Christian  schools  ministering  to  the  higher  life 
of  the  nation.  Their  aim  is  not  to  make  Congregationalists, 
but  men  and  women.  But  although  we  do  not  claim  them 
as  being  in  any  narrow  sense  our  own,  we  should  feel  grate- 
ful to  the  Giver  of  all  good  that  he  inspired  the  hearts  of 
our  Congregational  fathers  to  leave  behind  them  such 
monuments  of  their  wisdom  and  devotion,  and  that  men 
and  women  whose  hearts  have  been  kindled  at  our  altars 
have  been  permitted  through  the  grace  of  God  to  render 
so  great  a  service  to  our  Republic  and  the  world.  Our 
fathers  labored,  planting  the  tiny  seeds,  laying  toilsomely 
the  deep  foundations,  and  other  men  of  many  different 
communions  have  by  contributions  of  money,  thought  and 

[  257  ] 


I 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

prayer,  entered  into  their  labors,  expanding  and  strengthen- 
ing what  the  men  of  other  days  began.  But  let  it  not  be 
forgotten  that  the  pioneers  in  the  great  work,  the  heroes 
in  the  opening  of  the  battle,  the  men  who  bore  the  burden 
in  the  heat  of  the  day,  were  the  spiritual  brethren  of  Crom- 
well and  Milton,  men  who  believed  it  possible  to  have  a 
church  without  a  bishop  and  a  state  without  a  king. 

Harvard,  Yale,  Dartmouth,  Williams,  Bowdoin,  Am- 
herst, Mount  Holyoke,  Wellesley,  Smith,  what  the  nation 
owes  to  them  who  can  measure  or  declare?  How  many 
lustrous  names  can  be  culled  from  the  roll  of  their  76,000 
graduates?  Preachers,  lawyers,  doctors,  editors,  teachers, 
merchants,  soldiers,  statesmen,  the  men  who  have  moulded 
America  have  in  large  numbers  been  moulded  in  the  schools 
of  New  England.  There  is  scarcely  a  town  under  our  flag 
in  which  there  is  not  at  least  one  representative  of  one  of 
these  schools  shaping  by  his  life  the  thought  and  ideals  of 
the  community.  Year  after  year  through  many  generations 
a  mighty  stream  of  young  life  has  flowed  into  New  England 
from  every  section  of  our  country,  there  to  remain  until 
drenched  with  the  New  England  spirit  and  then  returning 
to  its  former  places  to  leaven  the  entire  national  life.  And 
although  our  country  stretches  three  thousand  miles  to 
the  Pacific,  and  although  there  are  in  every  section  of  the 
Union  great  and  honored  institutions  of  learning,  rich  in 
resources  and  teaching  skill,  this  tide  of  life  sweeping  toward 
New  England  still  continues  unabated  and  is  to-day  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  and  inspiring  phenomena  of  our 
age.  There  are  to-day  over  ten  thousand  students  in  these 
six  colleges  for  men,  and  over  twenty-five  hundred  young 
women  in  these  three  colleges  for  women,  and  of  the 
12,500,  over  5,600  or  45  percent,  belong  to  regions  outside 
of  New  England.      In  these  nine  institutions,  all  of  them 

[258] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

founded  by  men  and  women  of  our  communion,  and  all  of 
them  still  retaining  the  Congregational  atmosphere,  are  one- 
twelfth  of  all  the  college  students  of  our  Republic.  Through 
the  work  of  these  nine  institutions  the  spirit  of  Congrega- 
tionalism has  entered  into  the  very  blood  and  bone  of  the 
American  people,  and  no  account  of  our  national  greatness 
is  fair  or  complete  which  does  not  recognize  the  vast  ser- 
vice rendered  to  American  democracy  and  Christianity 
by  these  nine  Christian  schools. 

I  have  lingered  thus  long  on  New  England  because  New 
England  has  been  the  fountain  from  which  have  flowed  the 
streams  of  our  denominational  life.  But  Congregational- 
ism is  not  an  interpretation  of  the  religion  of  Christ  good  for 
only  one  corner  of  a  nation,  it  belongs  to  the  entire  conti- 
nent, it  is  good  for  the  world.  And  what  it  has  been  in 
New  England  it  must  be  in  every  region  which  is  willing 
to  give  it  room  to  display  its  power  and  do  its  work.  It 
was  only  a  half-century  ago  that  a  few  of  our  leaders,  among 
whom  was  the  pastor  of  this  church.  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson, 
broke  down  the  barriers  which  had  kept  the  polity  of  our 
fathers  local,  and  taught  men  to  see  that  we  have  a  mission 
coterminous  with  the  boundaries  of  the  world.  Within 
these  fifty  years  we  have  been  sowing  colleges  and  schools 
beside  all  waters.  We  have  belted  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
with  a  line  of  schools,  all  but  one  of  them  for  the  uplifting 
of  the  people  whom  Abraham  Lincoln  set  free.  Rollins  in 
Florida,  Atlanta  and  Green  in  Georgia,  Talladega  in  Ala- 
bama, Tougaloo  in  Mississippi,  Straight  in  Louisiana, 
Tillotson  in  Texas,  these  are  names  which  ought  to  be 
familiar  to  every  boy  and  girl  in  our  Sunday  Schools 
throughout  the  land.  And  to  these  should  be  added  Fisk 
University  in  Tennessee,  and  Howard  University  in  Wash- 
ington City,  and  also  Hampton  Institute  in  Virginia,  for 

[259] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Hampton  was  the  outgrowth  of  forces  which  our  American 
Missionary  Association  set  in  motion.  No  matter  with 
what  race  we  attempt  to  deal,  we  feel  that  without  acade- 
mies and  schools  we  can  do  nothing. 

And  what  we  have  done  in  the  South  we  have  done  still 
better  in  the  West.  As  early  as  1833  we  founded  Oberlin, 
and  one  year  later  Marietta,  and  one  year  later  still  Illinois. 
If  you  inspect  your  map  you  will  see  we  have  belted  the 
continent  with  our  schools.  In  the  northern  chain  are 
Olivet,  Beloit,  Ripon,  Carleton,  Fargo,  Redfield,  Yankton, 
and  Whitman.  In  the  central  chain  are  Oberlin,  Wheaton, 
Illinois,  Grinnell,  Tabor,  Wilton,  Gates,  Doane,  Forest 
Grove,  and  Pacific.  In  the  south  central  chain  are  Marietta, 
Berea,  Drury,  Fairmount,  Washburn,  Kingfisher,  Colo- 
rado, and  Pomona.  And  thus  in  every  way  we  are  endeavor- 
ing to  bind  our  nation  by  chains  of  schools  around  the  feet 
of  God. 

But  our  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  our 
words  to  the  end  of  the  world.  It  seems  well-nigh  im- 
possible for  a  Congregationalist  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  any 
land  whatsoever  without  his  endeavoring  sooner  or  later 
to  establish  a  school.  The  men  who  touch  us  become 
filled  with  the  same  enthusiasm  and  are  fired  by  a  like  am- 
bition. A  bright  Japanese  boy,  Joseph  Neesima,  comes  to 
this  country,  goes  through  three  of  our  schools,  and  before 
he  has  completed  his  course  he  is  burning  with  a  desire  to 
establish  a  school  in  his  own  land.  He  is  permitted  to  do 
this,  and  the  Doshisha  is  founded  at  Kyoto.  At  Tung- 
cho  and  Foochow  in  China,  at  Aintab  and  Harpoot,  Marash 
and  Marsovan,  Smyrna  and  Constantinople  in  Turkey,  at 
Pasumalai  in  India,  at  Samokov  in  Bulgaria,  at  Batticotta 
in  Ceylon,  at  Madrid  in  Spain,  we  have  planted  institutions 
in  which  the  intellect  is  trained  and  Western  learning  is 

[260] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

imparted  under  the  influences  of  the  rehgion  of  Christ. 
It  was  a  CongregationaHst,  Dr.  Daniel  BHss,  who  largely- 
built  up  the  Syrian  college  at  Beirut,  and  it  was  another 
CongregationaHst,  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  who  built  up  Robert 
College  in  Constantinople  and  gave  it  a  fame  which  circles 
the  globe.  What  mighty  results  shall  follow  the  faithful 
teaching  done  to-day  by  our  foreign  missionaries  scattered 
across  the  lands  we  cannot  even  dream;  we  rest  content 
with  the  assurance  that  work  done  in  the  Lord  is  never 
done  in  vain. 

This  then  from  the  beginning  has  been  the  special  form 
of  work  which  God  has  given  us  to  do.  In  this  direction 
we  have  always  travelled  by  what  seems  a  divine  thrusting 
on.  The  love  of  study  and  the  love  of  teaching  run  strong 
and  hot  in  the  Congregational  blood.  A  typical  Congre- 
gationaHst never  feels  that  he  has  finished  his  course  or 
kept  the  faith  unless  he  has  made  a  contribution  to  knowl- 
edge. Dwight  L.  Moody  was  a  layman  without  the  ad- 
vantages of  early  school  training.  He  became  the  mightiest 
Evangelist  of  his  generation,  and  although  unlettered  was 
the  hero  of  college  students,  and  counted  it  the  greatest 
work  of  his  life  to  found  two  schools,  one  for  boys  and  one 
for  girls,  on  opposite  banks  of  the  river  which  flows  through 
the  lovely  town  in  which  he  was  born.  General  O.  O. 
Howard,  for  many  years  an  illustrious  soldier  in  the  United 
States  army,  and  for  a  still  longer  period  a  faithful  soldier 
in  the  army  of  the  Lord,  felt  his  life  to  be  incomplete  until 
he  had  raised  a  substantial  endowment  for  Lincoln  Uni- 
versity at  Cumberland  Gap,  Tennessee.  Dr.  Frank  W. 
Gunsaulus,  one  of  Chicago's  busiest  pastors,  feels  led  of 
the  Spirit  to  take  upon  his  mind  and  his  heart  the  additional 
burden  of  the  management  of  a  great  technical  school. 
We  have  supplied  the  world  with  teachers  and  professors 

[  261  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

and  college  presidents.  Dr.  Gilman  of  Johns  Hopkins, 
Dr.  Angel  of  Michigan  University,  Dr.  Northrop  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  Dr.  Adams  of  Wisconsin  Univer- 
sity, Dr.  Thwing  of  the  Western  Reserve  University,  are 
only  a  few  of  a  long  list  of  men  who  have  stood  in  recent 
years  foremost  in  our  Denominational  Household  of  Faith 
and  also  in  the  great  cause  of  American  Education. 

Because  of  our  absorption  in  the  work  of  instruction  we 
have  not  grown  numerically  as  have  many  of  our  neigh- 
bors. The  Methodists  and  Baptists  have  been  the  great 
evangelizing  churches  of  American  Christendom.  They 
have  blown  the  bugle  and  beat  the  drums  and  enlisted  re- 
cruits for  the  army  of  the  Lord  as  no  other  bands  of  Chris- 
tians in  America  have  done.  And  they  have  their  reward. 
They  can  point  with  pride  to  vast  armies,  millions  strong, 
of  men  and  women  who  march  to-day  under  the  banner  of 
the  cross  as  the  result  of  their  herculean  efforts.  We  too 
have  had  our  work,  and  have  done  it.  If  it  is  a  work  not 
so  conspicuous  or  picturesque  as  that  of  others,  it  is  a  work 
no  less  necessary  and  no  less  substantial  in  its  service  to 
mankind.  We  Congregationalists  number  in  the  United 
States  only  650,000  and  in  all  the  world  we  are  only  1,200,- 
000.  But  our  mission  has  not  permitted  us  to  take  delight 
in  numbers.  We  have  had  a  deeper  and  a  more  quiet  work 
to  do.  We  have  never  been  sectarian,  claiming  that  we  alone 
constitute  the  true  Church  of  God.  Ever  have  we  mini- 
mized all  external  rites  and  badges  and  enthroned  the 
principles  which  lie  at  the  centre  of  life  in  Christ.  We  have 
been  content  to  create  an  atmosphere  in  which  all  Chris- 
tian bodies  might  do  more  effective  work,  to  build  up  a 
temper  by  which  the  world  might  come  into  closer  sym- 
pathy with  the  ideals  of  our  Lord  himself,  to  introduce 
into  all  life  a  leaven,  which,  working  silently  and  gradually, 

[  262  ] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

shall  by  and  by  leaven  the  whole  lump.  No  section  of  the 
modern  world  has  escaped  the  touch  of  our  spirit;  every 
feature  of  our  Republic  bears  the  prints  of  our  hands.  We 
have  fed  the  democratic  spirit  on  both  sides  the  sea,  and 
with  truthfulness  we  can  say,  To  this  end  were  we  born 
and  for  this  cause  came  we  into  the  world  to  bear  witness 
to  the  worth  and  supreme  importance  of  an  enlightened 
mind. 

If  you  ask  why  we  above  all  others  have  laid  such  em- 
phasis on  education  and  intellectual  culture,  the  answer  is 
to  be  found  in  the  Puritan  conception  of  the  human  soul. 
Our  entire  American  system  of  education  is  the  outgrowth 
of  a  religious  idea.  According  to  the  Puritan,  the  human 
soul  is  great.  The  individual  man,  no  matter  where  or 
who,  is  God's  own  creation,  and  this  man  answers  to  God 
and  to  God  alone  for  his  thoughts  and  actions.  He  has  a 
right  to  read  the  Bible  and  to  reach  his  own  conclusions. 
He  will  listen  of  course  to  his  religious  teachers,  but  he  will 
test  the  truth  of  what  they  say.  He  will  not  believe  every 
spirit,  but  will  test  them  and  see  whether  they  are  of  God. 
But  how  can  a  man  be  trusted  with  such  weighty  matters 
unless  he  is  informed?  How  can  he  prove  all  things  and 
be  able  to  hold  fast  the  good  unless  his  mind  is  trained  to 
observe,  discriminate,  and  search  below  the  surface  for  the 
truth  of  things?  If  a  man  is  to  be  trusted  with  the  Bible, 
then  he  must  know  how  to  read  it.  He  cannot  read  it  without 
an  education.  If  church  government  is  to  be  handed  over 
to  the  freemen  in  Christ,  then  they  must  be  intelligent,  and 
how  can  intelligence  grow  unless  fostered  by  schools?  And 
if  the  government  of  the  state  is  likewise  to  be  entrusted 
to  the  hands  of  the  people,  then  education  is  a  debt  which 
the  state  owes  to  her  citizens.  Without  schools  it  is  not 
possible  to  have  a  church  without  a  bishop  or  a  state  with- 

[  263  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

out  a  king.  Schools  then  are  a  logical  outcome  of  the 
Puritan  conception  of  the  soul.  A  deal  of  time  has  been 
spent  in  trying  to  find  out  to  whom  belongs  the  glory  of 
introducing  into  this  country  our  public  school  idea.  Some 
have  claimed  it  came  by  way  of  Holland  and  others  have 
asserted  with  equal  assurance  that  it  was  an  importation 
straight  from  England.  The  fact  is  that  wherever  Cal- 
vinism took  root,  there  sprang  up  a  demand  for  schools. 
In  France,  in  Switzerland,  in  Holland,  in  Scotland  and  in 
New  England  the  same  forces  began  to  work,  and  popular 
education  became  a  dream  of  the  leaders  of  the  church. 
Fifty  years  before  the  landing  of  the  Puritans  at  Boston, 
John  Knox  in  his  book  of  discipline  had  demanded  a  school 
in  connection  with  every  church,  and  before  the  Pilgrims 
left  Holland  the  Synod  of  Dort  had  given  expression  to 
the  same  demand.  As  Fiske  says,  **  One  of  the  cardinal 
requirements  of  democratic  Calvinism  has  always  been 
elementary  education  for  everybody."  It  matters  little 
therefore  whether  this  school  idea  came  by  Cape  Cod  or 
by  Sandy  Hook,  nor  does  it  matter  where  or  when  the  first 
school  on  American  soil  may  have  been  established.  What 
is  certain  beyond  all  successful  contradiction  is  that  it  was 
in  New  England  among  the  English  Puritans  that  the  idea 
was  most  fully  developed  and  worked  out  into  a  system 
which  in  the  course  of  time  became  the  system  of  the  entire 
American  people.  There  was  a  public  school  in  Boston 
as  early  as  1635,  but  it  was  not  till  1647  that  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  passed  a  statute  making  it  oblig- 
atory for  every  township  having  50  householders  to  sup- 
port a  primary  school  and  for  every  township  having  100 
householders  to  support  a  grammar  school  in  which  boys 
might  be  fitted  for  college.  "  By  this  law  of  1647,"  says 
Edward  Eggleston,   "  the  Puritan  government  of  Massa- 

[  264  ] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

chusetts  rendered  probably  its  greatest  service  to  the 
future.  From  that  quaint  act  has  been  slowly  evolved  the 
school  system  that  now  obtains  in  the  United  States." 
The  law  adopted  by  Massachusetts  in  1647  was  adopted 
by  Connecticut  three  years  later,  and  in  both  colonies  the 
reason  given  for  the  law  was  that  men  might  have  a  better 
understanding  of  the  word  of  God,  "  it  being  one  chief 
project  of  the  old  deluder  Satan  to  keep  men  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures."  Although  education  had 
its  stalwart  friends  in  Virginia  and  the  very  first  Assembly 
in  1619  favored  the  erection  of  a  proposed  university  and 
college,  yet  for  various  reasons  all  educational  schemes 
dwindled  and  halted,  so  that  when  fifty  years  after  the 
founding  of  Jamestown,  the  English  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Plantations  asked  for  information  on  the  subject 
of  education  from  the  Governors  of  Virginia  and  Con- 
necticut, the  former  replied:  '*  I  thank  God  there  are  no 
free  schools  or  printing  presses  and  I  hope  we  shall  not 
have  any  these  hundred  years;  "  while  the  second  reported: 
"  One-fourth  of  the  annual  revenue  of  the  Colony  is  laid 
out  in  maintaining  free  schools  for  the  education  of  our 
children."  It  was  the  development  of  a  complete  system 
of  education  in  New  England  which  made  it  possible  for 
Harvard  College  to  attain  a  prosperity  and  supremacy  which 
William  and  Mary  College  never  reached,  and  which  pro- 
duced in  New  England  a  civilization  in  comparison  with 
which  the  civilization  of  the  South  at  a  later  day  was 
found  inferior.  If  we  did  not  discover  the  idea  of  popular 
education,  we  at  least  developed  it  until  all  men  were  ready 
to  establish  it  as  one  of  our  fundamental  American  institu- 
tions. 

We  may  justly  claim  then  that  our  contribution  to  the 
cause  of  education  has  been  a  large  one.     In  these  days 

[265] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

when  the  educational  movement  is  the  most  popular  as 
well  as  the  mightiest  of  all,  when  in  a  single  year  the  rich 
men  of  our  nation  are  willing  to  give  over  one  hundred 
million  dollars  that  the  interests  of  education  may  be 
advanced,  when  men  are  beginning  to  realize  that  no  posi- 
tion outranks  in  importance  the  position  of  a  teacher,  and 
that  no  institution  offers  larger  returns  for  the  money  in- 
vested than  a  well  equipped  Christian  school,  let  us  not 
forget  the  heroism  and  wisdom  of  our  foresighted  Congre- 
gational fathers,  who,  when  "  exiles  in  a  wilderness,"  to  use 
Macaulay's  phrase,  recognized  the  great  principle  that  the 
state  should  take  upon  itself  the  charge  of  the  education 
of  the  people.  We  do  not  claim  we  have  done  it  all.  We 
are  not  unmindful  of  the  magnificent  work  done  by  brethren 
at  our  side.  We  claim  simply  a  place  in  the  very  foremost 
ranks  of  the  educational  leaders  and  toilers  of  the  world. 
We  were  the  first  to  plant  a  college  on  these  shores.  We 
were  the  first  to  establish  here  a  system  of  graded  schools. 
We  were  the  first  to  open  college  doors  to  women  as  well 
as  men  on  equal  terms.  We  were  the  first  to  establish  a 
college  for  the  higher  education  of  women.  We  were  the 
first  to  establish  schools  for  the  education  of  the  freedmen 
of  the  South.  We  were  the  first  to  found  institutions  of 
learning  in  many  foreign  lands.  We  have  been  first,  in 
proportion  to  our  numbers,  in  supplying  both  men  and 
treasure  for  the  education  of  the  world.  And  to  God 
shall  be  the  glory  now  and  forevermore.  And  if  his  will 
concerning  us  for  the  days  which  are  to  come  can  be  gleaned 
from  the  way  along  which  he  has  led  us  through  the  centuries 
which  are  gone,  then  it  would  seem  that  we  are  ordained 
to  minister  especially  to  the  human  mind,  and  that  along 
educational  lines  we  are  to  seek  and  expect  our  coming 
victories.    If  this  be  so,  then  let  us  project  the  foundations 

[266] 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  TO  EDUCATION 

of  additional  schools  for  boys  both  in  the  East  and  West, 
and  make  certain  of  the  strength  of  the  pulpit  in  every 
college  town,  and  let  us  be  so  generous  with  our  gifts  that 
no  one  of  our  existing  schools  or  colleges  shall  ever  for  lack 
of  money  perish  from  the  earth. 


[267] 


XV 

FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS  OF  PURITAN  CHARAC- 
TER AS   ILLUSTRATED   BY   JOHN   MILTON^ 

**  There  was  a  man  sent  from  God  whose  name  was  John."  —  John 
1  :6. 

The  man  whom  the  writer  holds  in  his  mind's  eye  is 
John  the  Baptist,  the  man  of  whom  Jesus  of  Nazareth  once 
said  that  no  greater  man  had  ever  been  born  of  woman. 
When  the  EvangeHst  thinks  of  John's  wonderful  gifts  and 
his  extraordinary  influence  and  of  how  finely  he  fitted  into 
the  needs  of  his  land  and  time,  he  is  convinced  that  this 
John  the  Baptist  did  not  come  into  the  world  by  acci- 
dent, but  that  he  came  as  the  servant  of  some  one  higher 
than  himself,  his  advent  being  a  part  of  the  all-compre- 
hending plan  of  Deity. 

There  is  something  thrilling  in  this  Hebrew  way  of  look- 
ing upon  great  men  as  messengers  sent  from  God.  The 
Hebrew  was  always  linking  the  earth  with  the  heavens.  It 
was  an  ancient  adage  in  Palestine  that  the  spirit  of  man  is 
the  candle  of  the  Lord,  or  in  other  words  that  human  per- 
sonality is  the  point  at  which  the  divine  energy  bursts  into 
flame.  With  this  conception  of  the  relation  of  the  human 
spirit  to  God,  great  men  became  to  the  Hebrew  the  revealers 
of  the  divine  nature,  the  promulgators  and  defenders  of  the 
heavenly  plan.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  biography  be- 
came the  basis  of  the  Hebrew  system  of  education,  and  the 
life  of  the  nation  was  organized  around  a  few  radiant  and 
mighty  names.     Abraham,   Isaac,  Jacob,   Moses,   David, 

1  Dec.  27,  1908. 

[268] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

and  Elijah,  these  and  a  few  others  became  taHsmanic,  and 
around  these  names  not  only  the  tenderest  memories  but 
also  the  fondest  hopes  were  twined.  Around  these  mighty 
personalities  Hebrew  parents  gathered  their  children, 
awakening  their  hearts  and  invigorating  their  spirits  by 
bringing  them  into  contact  with  the  men  by  whose  genius 
and  consecration  the  past  had  been  made  glorious  and  the 
nation  been  lifted  to  renown.  To  these  men  each  succeed- 
ing generation  went  reverently  back  to  light  its  torch, 
and  from  these  men  as  from  so  many  fountains  there  flowed 
vital  streams  by  which  the  Hebrew  world  was  kept  strong 
and  resolute  in  working  out  the  destiny  to  which  it  had 
been  called.  It  was  out  of  a  nation  thus  taught  and  guided 
that  there  came  in  the  fulness  of  time  the  man  of  men,  the 
one  Perfect  Man  —  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

If  this  was  the  method  adopted  by  the  most  spiritually 
gifted  nation  which  has  ever  played  a  part  on  the  stage  of 
human  action,  it  is  a  method  not  without  suggestion  to 
nations  which  have  still  their  career  to  run.  God  never 
leaves  himself  without  a  witness,  but  in  every  land  and 
time  great  men  and  true  arise  to  reveal  the  eternal  purposes 
and  to  make  plain  the  paths  in  which  men's  feet  should 
walk.  No  form  of  atheism  is  so  blind  and  mischievous  as 
that  which  confesses  God's  presence  and  power  in  one  par- 
ticular nation  and  which  fails  to  see  him  outside  this  narrow 
circle,  which  hails  with  gladness  his  operations  among  an 
ancient  people,  but  which  refuses  to  believe  he  was  working 
yesterday  and  is  working  still  to-day.  It  is  the  teaching 
of  our  religion  that  God  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever,  and  if  we  have  rightly  caught  the  spirit  and  teach- 
ing of  our  Scriptures,  we  shall  make  the  study  of  biography 
one  of  the  highest  functions  of  both  school  and  church,  and 
shall  not  hesitate  to  do  in  our  time  what  John  the  Evange- 

[  269  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

list  did  nineteen  centuries  ago,  proclaim  that  men  who 
usher  in  bright  ages  and  make  glorious  the  ideas  by  which 
the  soul  lives,  are  anointed  by  the  Most  High  God  and  sent 
into  the  world  by  Him.  Why  should  we  not  say  with 
assurance  and  great  gladness:  "  There  was  a  man  sent 
from  God  into  the  nineteenth  century  whose  name  was 
Abraham  Lincoln,"  or  '*  There  was  a  man  sent  from  God 
into  the  eighteenth  century  whose  name  was  George 
Washington,"  or  ''  There  was  a  man  sent  from  God  into 
the  seventeenth  century  whose  name  was  John  Milton  "  ? 
It  is  this  seventeenth  century  servant  of  Jehovah  of  whom 
we  are  to  think  this  morning. 

The  world  has  been  filled  with  voices  during  these  recent 
weeks  praising  the  name  of  Milton.  It  was  impossible 
that  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  his  birth  should 
come  and  go  without  stirring  the  hearts  of  men  profoundly. 
Poems  have  been  composed  in  his  honor,  eulogies  have  been 
pronounced,  essays  have  been  written,  orations  have  been 
delivered,  and  in  divers  ways  and  with  various  degrees  of 
reverence  and  appreciation  the  English-speaking  world 
has  been  induced  to  contemplate  for  a  season  the  genius 
and  achievements  of  England's  greatest  religious  poet. 
Most  of  what  has  been  said  and  written  has  had  to  do  with 
Milton  as  an  artist  in  the  realm  of  words.  And  this  is 
natural.  It  is  indeed  an  attractive  theme,  and  poets  and 
essayists  and  literary  critics  will  never  grow  weary  of 
telling  how  this  London  poet  spoke  our  language  with  a 
new  accent  and  called  out  of  it  harmonies  which  had 
never  been  heard  before.  He  was  indeed  a  wizard,  com- 
pelling the  refractory  adjectives  to  fall  each  one  into  its 
own  predestined  place,  commanding  the  sentences  to  climb 
to  unprecedented  and  unimaginable  heights!  What  a 
magician  he  was  in  the  mastery  of  tones,  framing  out  of 

[270] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

them  celestial  harmonies  which  have  fallen  on  the  world 
like  an  unescapable  and  indescribable  enchantment.  But 
Milton  the  poet  is  not  my  theme.  Nor  do  I  care  to  deal 
with  him  at  this  time  either  as  a  patriot,  or  a  thinker,  or  a 
controversialist  or  a  statesman.  He  played  in  his  day  many 
parts,  and  the  various  acts  which  made  up  the  tragedy  of 
his  life  have  a  fascination  when  rightly  told  which  clutches 
the  attention  and  stirs  the  heart.  But  all  this  interesting 
history  I  must  pass  over  with  only  here  and  there  a  glance, 
because  my  subject  is  Milton  the  Man.  It  is  not  to  his 
style  —  called  by  Matthew  Arnold  the  finest  illustration  in 
English  literature  of  the  great  style  —  but  to  his  character 
to  which  I  would  turn  your  eyes.  The  Grolier  Club  of  this 
city  has  now  on  exhibition  three  hundred  and  thirty  pictures 
of  Milton  —  the  largest  number  ever  collected  in  one 
place  at  one  time  —  but  it  is  not  his  personal  appearance 
in  which  I  am  interested.  I  wish  to  hold  up  before  you  the 
picture  of  his  soul.  It  is  not  Milton  the  poet,  or  Milton  the 
defender  of  liberty,  or  Milton  the  Latin  Secretary  of  the 
Council  of  the  English  Commonwealth,  but  Milton  the  man, 
who  is  best  worthy  of  our  study.  Let  us  examine  the  tex- 
ture of  his  spirit,  let  us  note  the  dominant  traits  of  his  mind 
and  his  heart. 

It  is  when  we  deal  with  his  character  that  we  deal  with 
that  part  of  him  which  is  imperishable.  Much  that  he 
thought  has  long  since  become  obsolete,  much  that  he 
wrote  has  no  longer  interest  except  for  antiquarians.  The 
world  cares  nothing  for  what  he  thought  on  the  subject  of 
divorce,  and  only  a  little  for  his  ideas  in  regard  to  educa- 
tion. His  notions  on  political  science  have  long  ago  been 
superseded,  and  his  cosmogony,  which  he  embodied  in  the 
greatest  of  his  poems,  belongs  to  a  world  which  can  never 
return.     His  conception  of  the  stellar  universe  as  a  sphere 

[  271  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

with  a  hard  crust,  suspended  from  the  floor  of  heaven, 
in  which  crust  there  is  an  aperture  near  the  top  not  far 
from  the  gate  of  heaven,  through  which  both  angels  and 
demons  can  find  access  to  our  world,  all  this  belongs  to  an 
order  of  thought  which  is  as  foreign  to  the  men  of  our  day 
as  are  the  things  which  existed  before  the  flood.  Even  his 
style  of  writing  is  antiquated.  It  is  gorgeous  and  stiff  as 
cloth  of  gold,  but  it  is  not  the  style  to  which  men  of  our  day 
are  willing  to  listen.  We  examine  it  and  admire  it,  just  as 
we  marvel  at  the  elaborately  carved  old  bedsteads  and  other 
pieces  of  furniture  which  have  been  handed  down  to  us 
from  preceding  generations.  His  style  of  speech  is  as  old- 
fashioned  and  antique  as  the  fantastic  lace  collar  he  used 
to  wear  around  his  neck.  But  there  is  something  about  the 
man  that  can  never  die.  That  is  his  character.  The  world 
passes  by  his  scientific  and  political  and  theological  ideas 
with  an  indifferent  eye,  but  it  stands  admiring  and  awe- 
struck in  the  presence  of  the  Man.  He  is  a  burning  bush 
and  men  take  off  their  shoes  before  him,  knowing  that  in 
his  presence  they  stand  upon  holy  ground.  Teachers  of  lan- 
guage have  often  brought  their  pupils  to  his  style,  feeling 
that  faults  of  diction  would  be  purged  away  by  the  flame 
of  his  burning  words.  I  would  bring  the  young  men  of 
America  into  his  presence,  sure  that  many  a  weakness  will 
disappear  and  many  a  vice  will  wither,  if  only  they  are 
willing  to  stand  for  a  season  within  reach  of  the  heat  of  his 
flaming  soul.     Behold,  Milton  the  Man! 

Remember  that  you  are  face  to  face  with  a  Puritan. 
Macaulay  in  his  famous  essay  says  he  was  not  a  Puritan, 
but  in  this  statement  the  great  English  essayist  departed 
from  the  facts.  There  was  a  reason.  Macaulay  did  not 
like  the  Puritans,  and  as  Milton  was  his  idol,  he  did  not  wish 
to  stigmatize  him  by  identifying  him  with  a  set  of  men 

[  '^1^  ] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

against  whom  so  many  railing  accusations  had  been  brought. 
We  will  agree  with  Macaulay,  however,  when  he  says: 
"  In  his  character  the  noblest  qualities  of  every  party  were 
combined  in  harmonious  union."  But  this  does  not  prove 
he  was  not  a  Puritan.  If  he  was  not  a  Puritan,  who  was? 
He  was  a  Puritan  in  education.  When  a  boy  he  attended 
a  church  in  whose  pulpit  there  stood  a  Puritan  preacher; 
when  he  went  to  school  he  sat  at  the  feet  of  a  Puritan  in- 
structor. When  the  time  arrived  for  him  to  go  to  college 
he  was  sent  to  Cambridge,  the  hotbed  of  Puritanism,  the 
university  of  John  Harvard  and  Thomas  Hooker  and  John 
Cotton,  of  Francis  Higginson  and  John  Winthrop  and  Roger 
Williams.  He  was  a  Puritan  in  his  ideas.  His  attitude  to 
the  Bible,  and  his  conceptions  in  theology,  and  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  Papacy  and  to  Prelacy  were  all  puritanic.  When 
only  a  boy  of  fifteen  he  was  turning  the  Hebrew  Psalms  into 
English  verse,  and  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  began  every 
morning  with  a  chapter  of  Scripture.  If  you  want  the 
Puritan  theology  full-toned,  read  Paradise  Lost.  He  was  a 
Puritan  in  his  temper.  He  was  intense,  vehement,  volcanic, 
furious.  He  struck  hard  and  without  mercy  at  every- 
thing which  in  his  judgment  was  antagonistic  to  the  will 
of  God.  He  was  a  Puritan  in  his  affiliations.  He  was  the 
Latin  Secretary  of  the  Council  of  the  Commonwealth,  a 
council  composed  entirely  of  Puritans,  whose  work  was  the 
guidance  of  a  Puritan  state.  His  work  was  the  work  of  a 
Puritan.  He  was  the  defender  of  the  Puritan  faith.  He 
was  the  champion  of  the  Puritan  party  and  hurled  thun- 
derbolts against  those  who  attacked  either  Puritan  leaders 
or  Puritan  principles.  If  Knox  is  the  preacher  of  Puritan- 
ism and  Cromwell  its  soldier,  then  Milton  is  its  defender 
and  poet.  He  stood  side  by  side  with  Cromwell,  one  fight- 
ing with  his  pen,  the  other  with  his  sword,  for  the  overthrow 

[273  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

of  those  who  had  wrecked  the  liberties  of  England.  His  con- 
temporaries all  thought  he  was  a  Puritan,  and  his  enemies 
attacked  him  as  one.  As  a  Puritan  he  was  thrown  into 
jail  on  the  accession  of  Charles  II,  and  as  a  Puritan  author 
his  books  were  burned  by  the  hangman,  and  as  a  Puritan 
he  was  hated  by  every  Royalist,  because  he  had  defended 
the  execution  of  Charles  I  and  had  made  despotism  odious 
among  all  whose  faces  were  toward  the  light.  He  lives  in 
history  as  a  Puritan.  The  world  has  had  only  two  supremely 
great  religious  poets,  one  a  Roman  Catholic,  the  Italian 
Dante;  the  other  a  Puritan,  the  English  Milton.  If  he 
was  not  a  Puritan,  no  Puritan  has  thus  far  existed  on  the 
earth.  He  was  in  fact  a  Puritan  of  the  Puritans,  a  Puritan 
in  every  fiber  of  his  being,  a  Puritan  to  the  marrow  of  his 
bones,  a  Puritan  by  the  foreknowledge  and  predestination 
of  God,  and  no  man  shall  ever  be  able  to  take  away  his 
crown. 

But  even  to  this  day  there  are  those  who  are  reluctant  to 
confess  that  Milton  was  a  Puritan.  He  seems  too  good  and 
great  to  be  a  Puritan,  because  in  many  circles  a  Puritan 
has  been  pictured  as  a  creature  quite  contemptible  and 
mean.  The  popular  opinion  has  often  made  the  Puritan 
a  sour  and  crabbed  bigot,  talking  through  his  nose,  looking 
askance  at  every  innocent  enjoyment,  bent  always  on  re- 
ducing life  to  universal  gloom.  He  has  been  pictured  a 
sworn  enemy  of  the  drama,  a  hater  of  beauty,  a  despiser  of 
pictures,  a  destroyer  of  art,  one  who  has  no  ear  for  music, 
no  eye  for  loveliness,  no  heart  capable  of  feeling  any  of 
the  higher  pleasures  which  belong  to  cultured  or  even  civi- 
lized men.  If  to  be  all  this  is  to  be  a  Puritan,  then  a  Puritan 
Milton  certainly  was  not,  for  he  was  a  steadfast  and  en- 
thusiastic lover  of  the  drama.  He  began  his  literary  career 
by  writing  a  play  —  Comus  —  and  he  ended  it  by  writing 

[274] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

another  — Samson  Agonistes.  All  his  life  long  he  praised 
the  masterpieces  of  the  great  dramatic  poets  as  having 
power  to  elevate  the  spirit  and  purge  the  heart  of  baser 
passions.  He  was  a  lover  of  music.  He  was  born  in  a 
home  filled  with  sweet  sounds.  His  father  was  an  organist 
and  also  a  composer  of  considerable  skill  and  repute.  Mil- 
ton was  taught  as  a  boy  to  sing,  and  in  his  opinion  no 
education  can  be  counted  complete  in  which  music  has 
been  neglected.  He  adored  the  beautiful.  To  a  friend  he 
wrote:  *'  God  has  instilled  into  me,  if  into  anyone,  a  ve- 
hement love  of  the  beautiful.  It  is  my  habit  day  and 
night  to  seek  for  this  idea  of  the  beautiful  through  all  the 
forms  and  faces  of  things."  So  sensitive  was  his  soul  to  every 
form  of  loveliness  that  he  has  often  been  called  the  High 
Priest  of  Beauty,  his  highest  function  being  to  minister  in 
her  holy  temple.  He  was  not  a  narrow  or  crabbed  man.  On 
the  contrary,  he  was  generous  and  liberal  beyond  most  of 
the  men  of  his  generation,  carrying  his  idea  of  liberty  be- 
yond the  bounds  set  for  it  even  by  the  boldest  friends  of 
freedom,  and  enjoying  the  world  even  when  he  was  blind, 
and  old,  and  hated.  If  this  man,  then,  be  a  Puritan,  we 
must  correct  and  enlarge  our  conception  of  the  Puritan 
character.  That  there  were  men  of  the  Puritan  party  who 
had  no  ear  for  music  and  no  taste  for  art  and  no  sympathy 
with  the  drama,  is  a  well-known  fact  of  history.  But  this 
does  not  prove  that  these  limitations  are  an  inseparable 
part  of  the  Puritan  character.  The  unlovely  dispositions 
which  the  history  of  Puritanism  discloses  were  only  inci- 
dental, one  might  say  accidental,  and  did  not  constitute 
an  integral  part  of  Puritan  character  and  life.  They  were 
for  the  most  part  the  product  of  chilling  and  dwarfing  cir- 
cumstances, the  creation  of  an  uncongenial  environment. 
There  was  much  in  Puritanism  which  was  only  transitory 

[  275  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

and  superficial,  only  foam  floating  on  the  surface  of  a  great 
deep.  When  men  pick  up  the  malformations  and  freaks, 
the  deformed  and  twisted  specimens  of  human  nature  which 
a  great  historic  movement  brings  to  the  front  in  time  of 
storm,  they  should  be  reminded  that  every  political  and 
religious  party  has  a  right  to  be  judged  not  by  its  worst 
but  by  its  best,  and  that  it  is  not  in  the  exceptional  or 
eccentric,  but  in  the  normal  and  abiding  elements  of  life 
and  character  that  the  secret  of  power  is  to  be  sought 
and  found.  If  you  want  to  know  what  are  the  fundamental 
traits  of  Puritan  character,  do  not  look  for  them  in  some 
stunted  individual  whose  life  was  crushed  out  of  shape 
by  the  hostile  forces  of  a  narrowing  environment,  but  come 
rather  to  a  man  who  was  planted  in  a  large  place  and  who 
was  permitted  to  bring  the  Puritan  virtues  and  the  Puri- 
tan graces  to  a  refreshing  bloom  and  fragrance.  Look  at 
Milton! 

What  then  are  these  fundamental  traits  as  exhibited  by 
England's  foremost  Puritan  poet?  First  of  all  comes  the 
sense  of  life  as  a  gift  of  God  to  be  used  for  God's  glory.  This 
is  basal  in  all  Puritan  thought  and  feeling.  As  soon  as  you 
enter  the  Puritan  world  you  feel  that  the  heavens  are  over 
you  and  that  they  are  influencing  the  earth.  Man  belongs 
to  God,  the  Puritan  asserts,  and  to  God  he  is  accountable 
for  the  use  of  his  gifts.  This  was  the  old  Hebraic  idea,  and 
in  this  idea  every  Puritan  child  was  early  established.  Man 
must  live  a  consecrated  life.  How  early  Milton  accepted 
this  idea  we  do  not  know.  Judging  from  the  picture  of 
him,  painted  by  a  famous  Dutch  artist  when  he  was  only 
ten  years  of  age,  one  would  think  that  even  then  the  boy 
was  aware  that  he  must  be  about  some  high  and  serious 
business.  He  tells  us  that  from  the  age  of  twelve  he  hardly 
ever  went  to  bed  until  midnight,  so  eager  was  he  to  store 

[276] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

his  mind  with  the  treasures  which  the  books  contained.  It 
was  in  1620  that  a  hundred  Puritans  started  on  the  May- 
flower for  America.  It  was  in  that  very  year  that  the 
London  boy  of  twelve  embarked  on  a  still  wilder  sea,  and 
steered  boldly  into  a  still  more  mysterious  West.  At  six- 
teen he  was  at  Cambridge,  burning  with  a  desire  not  only 
to  furnish  his  intellect  but  to  perfect  his  character.  At 
twenty-three  he  wrote  a  sonnet  in  which  he  declared  his 
desire  to  do  everything  as  in  the  "  great  Taskmaster's 
eye."  At  twenty-eight  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Diodati  from 
Horton:  ''  I  am  pluming  my  wings  for  a  flight."  By  this 
time  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  God  wanted  him 
to  be  a  poet,  and  that  it  was  his  mission  to  write  something 
which  the  world  would  not  willingly  let  die.  But  to  write 
a  great  poem,  he  said,  the  poet  himself  must  be  a  poem. 
No  man,  he  was  sure,  could  write  of  praiseworthy  thoughts 
and  actions  unless  these  excellent  things  existed  first  in 
himself.  From  an  early  age  then  this  thought  was  upper- 
most: "  I  must  live  a  dedicated  life."  This  made  him  se- 
rious. It  led  to  isolation.  In  Wordsworth's  words:  "  His 
soul  was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart." 

It  was  out  of  this  abiding  sense  of  accountability  to 
God  that  there  grew  up  the  idea  of  duty.  It  was  an  old 
idea  and  had  been  in  the  world  from  the  beginning,  but 
never  was  duty  so  lustrous  and  sovereign  as  to  the  Puritan. 
It  was  something  he  owed  to  God.  Milton  from  early  years 
was  under  the  sway  of  this  potent  conception.  He  must  ever 
do  what  it  was  his  duty  to  do.  At  the  age  of  thirty  he  was 
traveling  in  Italy.  His  plan  was  to  go  on  to  Sicily  and 
Greece.  Just  then  word  came  that  the  conflict  between  the 
King  and  Parliament  was  coming  to  a  crisis,  and  that  in  all 
likelihood  the  King  would  take  up  arms  against  his  Scottish 
subjects.      Milton   at  once   made   preparations   to   return 

[V7] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

home.  To  see  Greece  had  been  one  of  the  ambitions  of  his 
life,  but  "  I  thought  it  base,"  he  said,  "  to  be  traveling  for 
amusement  abroad  while  my  fellow  citizens  were  fighting 
for  liberty  at  home."  Returning  home  he  found  England 
on  the  verge  of  revolution.  The  clash  came.  The  King 
was  dethroned.  The  King  was  beheaded.  A  common- 
wealth was  established.  This  commonwealth  needed  de- 
fenders. Milton  felt  that  he  must  come  to  its  defense. 
He  gave  up  his  plans.  He  laid  aside  his  ambition  to  write 
a  great  poem.  He  turned  his  back  on  the  life  of  seclusion 
and  meditation  for  which,  both  by  temperament  and  cul- 
ture, he  was  best  fitted.  He  entered  the  dusty  arena  of 
controversy.  He  rushed  to  the  defense  of  the  men  who 
were  called  murderers  and  impostors.  He  did  it  because 
it  was  his  duty  to  do  it.  He  could  not  do  anything  else. 
Like  St.  Paul,  he  cried:  "  Woe  is  me  if  I  do  not  do  this!  " 
He  heard  a  voice  of  rebuke  ever  saying  to  him:  "  Thou 
hadst  the  diligence,  the  parts,  the  language  of  a  man,  if  a 
vain  subject  were  to  be  adorned  or  beautified,  but  when 
the  cause  of  God  and  His  church  was  to  be  pleaded,  for 
which  purpose  that  tongue  was  given  thee  that  thou  hast, 
God  listened  if  He  could  hear  thy  voice  among  His  zeal- 
ous servants,  but  thou  wert  dumb  as  a  beast."  He  made 
the  great  surrender  because  it  was  his  duty.  In  a  sonnet 
to  a  friend  he  says:  "  What  supports  me,  dost  thou  ask? 
The  conscience,  friend!  "     Behold  the  Puritan! 

Of  all  the  duties  which  lay  upon  the  Puritan  conscience 
the  duty  of  virtue  came  first.  The  Puritan  was  first  of  all 
an  advocate  of  purity.  Hence  his  name  —  Pu-ri-tan.  He 
hated  vice,  he  detested  immorality,  he  loathed  uncleanness. 
Probably  the  deepest  thing  in  Milton  was  his  love  of  purity. 
While  at  college  he  was  called  '*  The  Lady,"  possibly  be- 
cause of  the  beauty  and  refinement  of  his  face,  but  most 

[278] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

probably  because  he  did  not  care  to  take  part  in  the  de- 
baucheries by  which  college  life  in  those  days  was  dis- 
graced. His  first  ambition  as  a  poet  was  to  speak  a  ringing 
word  against  unchastity  and  to  extol  and  glorify  the  idea 
of  virtue.     It  is  his  very  soul  which  you  hear  in  lines  like 

these : 

"  Mortals  who  would  follow  me, 
Love  Virtue;  she  alone  is  free. 
She  can  teach  you  how  to  climb 
Higher  than  the  sphery  chime; 
Or  if  Virtue  feeble  were, 
Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her." 

("  Comus.") 

After  a  spotless  youth  at  home  he  spent  a  year  in  foreign 
travel.  The  most  of  that  year  was  lived  in  Italy,  at  that 
time  a  fiery  furnace  of  unbridled  lust.  But  in  the  midst  of 
the  fire  the  English  Puritan  walked  unscathed.  On  his  re- 
turn to  England  in  August,  1639,  he  adds  this  sentence  to 
his  account  of  his  journey,  a  sentence  with  which  his  biog- 
rapher, Masson,  closes  the  first  volume  of  his  monu- 
mental work:  "  I  again  take  God  to  witness  that  in  all 
these  places,  where  so  many  things  are  considered  lawful, 
I  lived  sound  and  untouched  from  all  profligacy  and  vice, 
having  the  thought  perpetually  with  me  that,  though  I 
might  escape  the  eyes  of  men,  I  certainly  could  not  the  eyes 
of  God."  Milton  was  as  handsome  as  Goethe,  as  sensitive, 
inflammable,  and  passionate  as  he.  How  the  great  Ger- 
man dwindles  in  comparison  with  this  English  Puritan. 
Milton  never  betrayed  a  woman.  There  was  no  blot  on 
his  scutcheon.    Behold  the  Puritan! 

If  there  was  any  passion  in  the  nature  of  our  hero  stronger 
than  the  passion  for  purity,  it  was  his  passion  for  liberty. 
His  love  of  freedom  was  one  of  the  elemental  forces  of  his 
soul.  Here  again  we  strike  that  which  is  deep  in  every 
genuinely  Puritan  heart.    A  Puritan  is  a  man  who  has  so 

[  279  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

clear  a  vision  of  God  that  he  will  not  allow  himself  to  be 
lorded  over  by  any  of  the  potentates  of  earth.  Milton's 
father  had  intended  his  son  to  become  a  clergyman,  and 
that  was  also  the  boy's  first  intention,  but  when  the  time 
came  for  him  to  prepare  for  the  church,  he  drew  back,  on 
the  ground  that  he  was  unwilling  to  write  himself  down  a 
slave.  The  ministry  was  at  that  time  so  bound  round  by 
prescriptions  and  regulations  that  no  man  who  loved  liberty 
could  become  a  preacher.  Milton  was  twenty  when  William 
Laud  became  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  it  was  only  five 
years  later  that  the  Bishop  of  London  was  made  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  Laud  was  a  typical  ecclesiastical 
tyrant.  He  slit  men's  noses  and  cut  off  their  ears  and 
threw  them  into  loathsome  dungeons  if  they  would  not 
bend  to  his  autocratic  will.  It  was  impossible  for  Milton 
to  think  of  the  ministry  under  the  administration  of  a  man 
like  that.  He  gave  up  the  church  and  turned  to  poetry. 
Because  of  his  ardent  love  for  freedom  he  turned  from 
poetry  to  prose.  The  finest  of  all  Milton's  prose  writings, 
and  the  only  one  which  now  has  any  considerable  num- 
ber of  readers,  is  his  ''  Areopagitica,"  or  "  Speech  for  the 
Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Printing."  In  the  history  of  the 
development  of  freedom  this  work  of  Milton  has  a  place 
from  which  it  can  never  be  dislodged.  It  is  only  when 
the  heart  is  burning  with  fierce  emotions  that  the  tongue 
becomes  eloquent  and  that  words  corruscate  and  flash. 
What  must  have  been  the  temperature  of  the  heart  that 
pushed  the  blood  to  the  finger-tips  of  the  man  who  wrote 
**  Areopagitica  "  ?  There  are  sentences  in  that  argument 
which  burn  with  a  flame  so  intense,  so  clear,  so  beautiful 
it  seems  that  it  must  have  been  kindled  at  the  very  altar 
of  God. 

So  intense  was  Milton's  love  of  freedom  that  it  rose  at 

[  280  ] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

times  to  the  fury  of  a  mania.  He  became  beside  himself, 
frenzied,  crazed.  It  is  in  his  attacks  on  despotism  that  we 
come  to  what,  in  the  judgment  of  many,  is  one  of  the  deepest 
blots  upon  his  fame.  In  defending  liberty  he  became  vitu- 
perative, furious,  bitter.  He  perfected  himself  in  the  art 
of  vituperation,  not  only  indulging  in  it  to  surprising 
limits,  but  defending  himself  in  the  use  of  it,  claiming  that 
vituperation  is  the  only  weapon  suitable  for  dealing  with 
controversialists  of  a  certain  type.  We  stand  amazed  at 
this  man's  use  of  epithets.  All  the  pointed  and  sharp- 
edged  and  jagged  adjectives  of  our  English  speech  were 
at  his  command,  and  he  wove  them  into  a  scourge  of  scor- 
pions with  which  to  lacerate  the  backs  of  his  opponents. 
It  was  a  rude  and  wild  age,  and  men  of  all  parties  used 
words  as  ruffians  used  daggers.  In  endeavoring  to  judge 
Milton  two  things  must  be  remembered.  We  do  not  face 
to-day  the  enemy  with  which  he  was  called  to  contend. 
The  bishops  of  our  day  are  amiable,  harmless  individuals 
whose  power  for  working  mischief  has  been  curtailed  by 
the  growth  of  the  democratic  principle,  both  in  church 
and  state,  and  moreover  our  statesmen  are  so  bound  round 
by  law  that  they  can  neither  molest  us  nor  make  us  afraid. 
We  too  would  no  doubt  flame  with  wild  wrath  if  we  could 
see  the  outrages  which  Milton  saw.  And  then  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  great  souls  have  passions  of  which  lesser 
souls  cannot  dream.  We  do  not  see  the  beauty  of  liberty 
as  Milton  saw  it,  nor  do  we  comprehend  the  immeasurable 
havoc  wrought  in  the  human  spirit  by  the  suppression  of 
thought  or  speech.  Like  one  of  the  old  heroes  in  the  Book 
of  Judges  he  fought  in  fierce  and  lawless  times,  and  when 
we  see  him  reeling  from  the  field,  his  body  covered  with 
mire  and  blood,  whatever  condemnation  we  may  pass  upon 
him,  let  us  remember  that  the  battle  was  tremendous  and 

[  281  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

that  he  fought  an  uncompromising  and  victorious  fight. 
He  was  a  warrior  batthng  for  liberty.  Behold  the 
Puritan! 

A  man  on  fire  with  passion  for  a  noble  cause  is  always 
ready  to  sacrifice.    Willingness  to  sacrifice  is  a  trait  of  the 
Puritan  character.    A  man  who  bows  before  the  sovereignty 
of  duty  cannot  avoid  a  sacrificial  life.    Milton  gave  up  little 
things  like  going  to    Greece,  he  gave  up  greater  things 
like  devoting  his  life  to  poetry.    What  this  latter  sacrifice 
meant  to  a  man  like  Milton  can  be  appreciated  only  by 
one  who  has  Milton's  love  of  solitude  and  Milton's  ambition 
to  do  an  immortal  piece  of  work.    But  there  was  a  greater 
sacrifice  which  he  was  called  upon  to  make.    It  was  neces- 
sary for  him  to  give  up  his  eyesight.    When  Salmasius,  the 
famous  French  scholar  of  the  university  at  Leyden,  brought 
out  a  book  defending  the  policy  of  Charles  I  and  laying 
down  principles  which  would  destroy  the  foundations  of 
free  government  everywhere,  Milton  felt  that  the  argument 
must  be  answered.    Salmasius  was  the  literary  dictator  of 
all  Western  Europe,  a  counselor  of  princes  and  kings,  and 
to  allow  his  volume  to  go  unanswered  would  jeopardize  the 
cause  of  liberty  throughout  the  world.     Milton's  eyes  had 
already  given  him  trouble.     His  physicians  warned  him  to 
be  careful.     ''  If  you  go  on  with  your  writing,"  they  said, 
"  you  may  lose  your  eyesight."    He  went  on,  and  paid  the 
awful  price.      It  is  a  price  great  for  any  man  to  pay,  immea- 
surably greater,  however,  for  a  man  who  loves  and  lives 
in  books.    A  recent  writer  has  said:   "  Why  should  he,  who 
penned  L' Allegro,  whose  liberal  soul  was  invited  to  give  to 
England  an  epic  such  as  he  could  write  but  did  not,  on 
Arthur,  involving  the  whole  cycle  of  Arthurian  or  ancient 
British  legends;  why  should  he,  even  in  the  name  of  God, 
truth,  liberty,  and  country,  doff  his  singing  robes  for  the 

[282] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

draught  work  of  old  Noll  and  his  gloomy  council  of  minis- 
ters? "  Such  writing  as  that  is  not  only  ignorant  but  low. 
The  man  who  wrote  that  does  not  know  the  value  of  liberty. 
He  is  incapable  of  making  any  tremendous  sacrifice  for 
freedom.  He  does  not  know  at  what  a  fearful  price  our 
liberties  have  been  bought.  That  kind  of  talk  is  like  the 
talk  of  a  man  who  would  say  that  if  the  three  hundred 
Greeks  who  died  at  Thermopylae  had  only  stayed  in 
Athens  and  studied  poetry  they  might  have  equalled  the 
odes  of  Pindar  or  the  tragedies  of  ^schylus.  It  is  like 
saying,  If  the  men  in  blue  who  fell  at  Gettysburg  had  only 
stayed  at  home  they  might  have  made  money  and  founded 
colleges.  It  is  like  saying,  If  a  certain  woman  had  not 
married  and  brought  up  a  family  she  might  have  won 
distinction  as  a  player  on  the  piano.  Not  only  is  such 
writing  low  but  it  is  ignorant.  That  man  does  not  know 
that  Paradise  Lost  could  not  have  been  written  had  not 
Milton  passed  through  a  fiery  furnace  heated  seven  times 
hot.  There  are  things  which  God  communicates  to  no  one 
except  the  soul  that  suffers.  Without  the  trial  and  the 
tribulation  of  twenty  years,  Milton  could  not  have  created 
the  poem  which  makes  the  whole  world  rich.  He  gave  up 
his  plans,  his  ambitions,  the  best  years  of  his  life,  his  eyes, 
and  in  return  God  gave  to  him  an  epic  poem.  Milton  was 
ready  to  give  up  anything,  everything  for  the  glory  of 
God!    Behold  the  Puritan! 

But  in  suffering  the  Puritan  becomes  mighty.  He  has 
in  him  the  consciousness  of  unconquerable  strength.  Mil- 
ton was  a  man  whom  no  combination  of  forces  was  able 
to  bend  or  break  down.  I  have  called  him  serious,  but 
gloomy  he  was  not.  There  is  not  a  trace  of  gloom  in  any 
of  his  writings.  You  can  hear  the  blowing  of  trumpets 
proclaiming  victory  all  the  way.     From  L'Allegro,  where 

[283] 


FOREFATHERS*  DAY  SERMONS 

the  flutes  are  playing  and  heaven  and  earth  are  dancing, 
down  to  the  majestic  strains  of  Samson  Agonistes,  the  sun 
is  always  huge  and  glorious  in  the  heavens  by  day  and  at 
night  the  quiet  stars  look  down  upon  a  world  which  God 
has  made  and  rules.  Nothing  could  daunt  this  intrepid 
man.  Listen  to  him  saying:  **  It  is  not  necessarily  a  misery 
to  be  blind:  the  only  misery  is  not  to  be  able  to  endure 
blindness."  He  wrote  a  sonnet  one  day  on  his  blindness 
in  which  he  mentions  certain  musings  which  have  been 
passing  through  his  soul.  He  sees  the  King  of  heaven  on 
his  throne  and  watches  his  servants  posting  in  all  directions 
over  land  and  ocean,  and  then  he  thinks  of  himself  stand- 
ing impotent,  unable  either  to  run  or  even  walk,  incapaci- 
tated by  his  blindness  for  doing  the  large  things  which  the 
world  needed  to  have  done,  but  even  this  does  not  break 
him  down.  He  consoles  himself  with  a  thought  which  he 
has  expressed  in  a  line  more  frequently  quoted  than  any 
other  line  he  ever  wrote : 

"  They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 

As  his  life  went  on  the  darkness  deepened.  The  Com- 
monwealth established  by  Cromwell  was  unable  to  ride 
through  the  storm.  Charles  H  ascended  the  throne.  The 
nation  plunged  at  once  into  a  wild  season  of  recklessness 
and  pleasure.  Many  of  Milton's  friends  were  thrown  into 
prison.  The  principles  dear  to  his  heart  were  derided  and 
overthrown.  The  cause  to  which  he  had  given  his  life  was 
brought  to  the  dust.  The  heads  of  Cromwell  and  Brad- 
shaw  were  exposed  for  public  execration.  His  highest 
hopes  were  disappointed,  his  fondest  dreams  fell  in  ruins. 
Poor,  disgraced,  deserted,  he  sat  alone  and  blind  amid 
the  wreckage  of  his  country's  liberties  and  the  ruins  of  the 
great  plans  which  he  and  others  had  formulated  for  the 

[  284  ] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

English  people,  but  his  great  soul  soared  on  eagle's  wings 
above  the  darkness  and  the  storms  of  earth,  kindling  its 
undazzled  eyes  as  of  old  "  at  the  full  midday  beam."  It 
was  in  these  awful  days  that  his  mind  turned  to  the  old, 
blind  hero  of  Israel  —  Samson.  The  Hebrew  could  not 
be  conquered,  neither  could  the  Englishman.  From  first 
to  last  his  soul  was  tuned  to  this  high  note: 

**  I  argue  not 
Against  Heaven's  hand  or  will,  nor  bate  a  jot 
Of  heart  or  hope,  but  still  bear  up,  and  steer 
Right  onward." 

Behold  the  Puritan! 

What  was  the  secret  of  this  man's  victorious  strength? 
He  wrestled  not  against  flesh  and  blood  but  "  against  the 
principalities,  against  the  powers,  against  the  world  rulers 
of  this  darkness,  against  the  spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness 
in  the  heavenly  places  "  and  came  off  more  than  conqueror 
because  he  had  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God,  and  had 
learned  the  secret  of  prayer.  Milton  stands  unique  among 
English  men  of  letters  for  the  boldness  and  frequency  with 
which  he  prays.  In  the  greatest  of  his  prose  writings  he 
mounts  from  the  crest  of  his  reasoning  into  the  region  of 
prayer.  We  follow  him  in  his  massive  argument,  and  lo! 
before  we  are  aware  of  it,  he  is  pleading  not  with  us  but  with 
God.  His  greatest  poem  has  in  it  many  marvelous  pictures 
but  not  one  more  awe-inspiring  and  self-revealing  than  that 
of  the  author  in  prayer.  Milton  had  no  doubt  of  the  exis- 
tence of  the  "  Eternal  Spirit  that  can  enrich  with  all 
utterance  and  knowledge  and  that  sends  out  his  Seraphim 
with  the  hallowed  fire  of  his  altar,  to  touch  and  purify  the 
lips  of  whom  he  pleases."  Sure  of  God  he  throws  himself 
upon  God's  strength  and  mercy  at  the  very  beginning  of 
his  immortal  poem : 

[  385  ] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

"  O  Spirit,  that  dost  prefer 
Before  all  temples  th'  upright  heart  and  pure, 
Instruct  me,  for  thou  know'st;  thou  from  the  first 
Wast  present,  and  with  mighty  wings  outspread 
Dove-like  sat'st  brooding  on  the  vast  abyss, 
And  mad'st  it  pregnant:  what  in  me  is  dark 
Illumine,  what  is  low  raise  and  support; 
That  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument 
I  may  assert  eternal  Providence, 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 

A  recent  Italian  writer  —  Pietro  Raveggi  —  has  said  that 
there  is  an  apocalyptic  splendor  and  mystery  in  Milton's 
invocations.  "  The  language  has  the  grandeur  of  poetry 
and  the  sweetness  of  the  voices  of  Paradise.  As  we  listen 
we  are  caught  away  and  transported  to  the  visions  of  the 
everlasting  life."  Veit  Dietrich,  having  listened  in  secret 
to  the  prayers  of  Martin  Luther  while  he  was  staying  at 
Coburg,  afterward  confessed:  "  My  soul,  too,  burned  within 
me  with  a  strange  passion  while  he  spoke  so  familiarly,  so 
solemnly,  so  reverently  with  God."  If  you  would  learn  the 
secret  of  the  strength  of  this  English  Samson,  listen  to  him 
while  he  prays.    Behold  the  Puritan! 

This  then  is  the  man  Milton,  the  greatest  man  in  the 
long  line  of  English  singers.  No  one  would  for  a  moment 
think  of  comparing  Milton  with  Burns  or  Byron,  or  Shelley 
or  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  As  a  man  he  towers  above  Swinburne 
and  Coleridge  and  Arnold  and  Tennyson  and  Browning. 
In  manhood  he  outranks  the  great  Shakespeare.  As  a  poet 
Shakespeare  stands  first,  but  as  a  man  he  surrenders  the 
palm  to  Milton.  Shakespeare  as  soon  as  he  made  money 
enough  to  keep  him  in  comfort  turned  his  back  on  the 
world,  retiring  to  his  native  village,  where  he  spent  the 
closing  years  of  his  life  in  the  easy  occupations  of  a  gentle- 
man farmer.  In  his  dramas  he  acted  on  the  principle  which 
he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Hamlet.  To  him  the  end  of 
playing  is  "to  hold,  as  'twere,  the  mirror  up  to  nature; 

[286] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

to  show  virtue  her  own  feature,  scorn  her  own  image,  and 
the  very  age  and  body  of  the  time  his  form  and  pressure." 
In  his  genius  for  holding  the  mirror  up  to  nature,  Shake- 
speare has  never  had  an  equal.  He  gives  us  the  world  as 
he  saw  it.  He  is  the  most  impersonal,  the  most  impartial 
of  all  the  poets.  You  can  quote  him  on  both  sides  of  almost 
every  question.  He  pictures  Falstaff  with  as  evident  a 
relish  as  he  paints  the  portraits  of  Imogene  and  Hermione. 
He  does  not  take  sides.  He  is  not  a  prophet.  He  is  not  a 
soldier  of  God.  He  does  not  struggle  for  righteousness. 
Milton  on  the  other  hand  was  a  warrior,  a  prophet,  a  de- 
fender of  the  faith.  Like  holy  men  of  old  he  bore  the  burden 
of  the  Lord.  Like  prophets  and  apostles  he  wrestled  with 
a  world  in  rebellion  against  God.  Vice  was  loathsome  to 
him,  virtue  alone  could  win  the  plaudits  of  his  heart.  In 
that  long  line  of  shining  singers  who  have  filled  the  world 
with  music  from  Geoffrey  Chaucer  to  Robert  Browning, 
there  is  not  one  so  tall  of  stature  and  so  noble  in  the  regal 
traits  of  manhood  as  John  Milton.  Macaulay  in  his  most 
famous  essay  has  written  sentences  which  the  world  has 
never  been  willing  to  change: 

"  There  are  a  few  characters  which  have  stood  the  closest 
scrutiny  and  the  severest  tests,  which  have  been  tried  in 
the  furnace  and  have  proved  pure,  which  have  been  weighed 
in  the  balance  and  have  not  been  found  wanting,  which 
have  been  declared  sterling  by  the  general  consent  of  man- 
kind, and  which  are  visibly  stamped  with  the  image  and 
superscription  of  the  Most  High.  These  great  men,  we 
trust,  we  know  how  to  prize;  and  of  these  was  Milton. 
The  sight  of  his  books,  the  sound  of  his  name,  are  refresh- 
ing to  us.  His  thoughts  resemble  those  celestial  fruits 
and  flowers  which  the  Virgin  Martyr  of  Massinger  sent 
down  from  the  gardens  of  Paradise  to  the  earth,  distin- 

[287] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

guished  from  the  productions  of  other  soils,  not  only  by 
their  superior  bloom  and  sweetness,  but  by  their  miraculous 
efficacy  to  invigorate  and  to  heal.  They  are  powerful 
not  only  to  delight,  but  to  elevate  and  purify.  Nor  do  we 
envy  the  man  who  can  study  either  the  life  or  the  writings 
of  the  great  poet  and  patriot,  without  aspiring  to  emulate, 
not,  indeed,  the  sublime  works  with  which  his  genius  has  en- 
riched our  literature,  but  the  zeal  with  which  he  labored  for 
the  public  good,  the  fortitude  with  which  he  endured  every 
private  calamity,  the  lofty  disdain  with  which  he  looked 
down  on  temptation  and  dangers,  and  the  deadly  hatred 
which  he  bore  to  bigots  and  tyrants,  and  the  faith  which 
he  so  sternly  kept  with  his  country  and  with  his  fame." 

William  Wordsworth,  the  greatest  poet  in  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  spoke  for  the  England  of  his 
day  in  a  sonnet  addressed  to  our  Puritan  poet.  It  was  not 
the  poet  but  the  man  to  whom  Wordsworth  was  looking 
when  he  wrote: 

"  Milton!  thou  should'st  be  living  at  this  hour: 
England  hath  need  of  thee:  she  is  a  fen 
Of  stagnant  waters:  altar,  sword  and  pen, 
Fireside,  the  heroic  wealth  of  hall  and  bower, 
Have  forfeited  their  ancient  English  dower 
Of  inward  happiness.     We  are  selfish  men ; 
Oh,  raise  us  up,  return  to  us  again; 
And  give  us  manners,  virtue,  freedom,  power." 

On  the  ninth  day  of  the  present  month  in  the  City  of 
London,  at  the  celebration  of  the  three  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  Milton's  birth,  a  poem  written  by  the  world's 
greatest  living  novelist,  George  Meredith,  was  recited. 
George  Meredith  is  eighty  years  of  age  and  he  knows  the 
world  as  few  men  do.  He  knows  England  and  he  knows 
the  great  men  whom  England  has  given  to  the  world. 
Listen  to  his  words: 

[  288  ] 


FUNDAMENTAL  TRAITS 

"  Were  England  sunk  beneath  the  shifting  tides, 
Her  heart,  her  brain,  the  smile  she  wears. 
The  faith  she  holds,  her  best  would  live  full-toned 
In  the  grand  delivery  of  his  cathedral  speech." 

And  then  contemplating  the  present  condition  of  man- 
kind, cursed  and  torn  by  Mammon,  who  has  become  a 
monstrous,  inveterate  Moloch,  the  twentieth  century 
novelist  repeats  the  cry  of  the  nineteenth  century  poet  — 
"  We  need  him  now!  "  This  is  the  tribute  which  the  world 
pays  to  the  Puritan. 

It  was  two  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  ago  last  month 
when  on  a  Sunday  evening  the  old  blind  poet  left  our 
earth.  The  world  has  greatly  changed  since  that  Novem- 
ber evening.  The  London  of  Milton's  day  has  disappeared. 
A  new  London  is  now  the  metropolis  of  the  world.  The 
house  in  which  Milton  was  born  was  licked  up  by  the 
flames  of  the  great  conflagration  of  1666.  The  house  at 
Horton  in  which  he  spent  six  happy  years  was  torn  down 
over  a  hundred  years  ago.  All  his  London  residences  have 
one  after  another  succumbed  to  the  tooth  of  time,  the  last 
one  disappearing  thirty-one  years  ago.  The  intellectual 
house  in  which  he  lived  has  also  been  obliterated  by  the 
rising  tide  of  modern  knowledge.  The  scientific  conceptions 
and  the  religious  dogmas  in  which  he  made  his  home  have 
been  swept  away  never  to  come  back  again.  We  live  in 
a  new  world  with  new  notions  and  a  new  vocabulary,  but 
Milton  abides  with  us  and  will  abide  forever.  He  is  a 
force  in  our  politics,  a  power  in  our  religion.  His  spirit  is  an 
indestructible  part  of  the  life  of  humanity.  His  fame  is 
secure.    In  the  words  of  Tennyson : 

"  O  mighty  mouthed  Inventor  of  harmonies, 
O  skilled  to  sing  of  Time  or  Eternity, 
God-gifted  organ  Voice  of  England, 
Milton,  a  name  to  resound  for  ages." 

[289] 


FOREFATHERS'  DAY  SERMONS 

Though  dead,  he  yet  speaks.  And  so  long  as  the  human 
heart  in  times  of  stress  grows  faint  and  seeks  inspiration 
by  gazing  into  the  faces  of  those  who  have  suffered  and  have 
overcome,  so  long  as  the  human  spirit  casts  its  crowns  at 
the  feet  of  those  who  have  fought  the  fight  and  kept  the 
faith,  will  men  in  every  land  and  in  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion, travel  back  to  the  old  blind  Puritan  who  sang  in  the 
night  an  immortal  song,  in  quest  of  strength  with  which  to 
meet  and  vanquish  the  foes  of  God  which  the  soul  en- 
counters along  the  difficult  and  perilous  way. 


[290] 


Date  Due 

n          „-.->■ 

Ij  ;^     M 

'<* 

Mr  2 1  '^P 

■  * 

r  i\piU 

^^^^^  "*     c 

1975 

f^  '  jr 

f 

i 


